


A Secret's Worth

by rockymountainvixen



Series: My Only Sunshine [2]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: Angst, Developing Friendships, Discoveries, Drama, Family Drama, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Investigations, Mystery, No trolls or trollhunting in this one but we'll get there eventually, Revelations, Secrets, Slow Burn, Suspense, Troll Jim reveal, teenage antics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2020-10-05 09:55:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 30,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20486987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockymountainvixen/pseuds/rockymountainvixen
Summary: High school is a time for learning, exploration, making new friends. At Arcadia Oaks High school, five freshman come together to do just that, but it soon becomes apparent that all is not well for one of them. And he's just as desperate to keep his secrets as his friends are to uncover them. But more is going on than any of them can imagine, and when the full truth comes out, no one will be prepared.





	1. Claire

The building itself was utterly unremarkable, a boxy structure of beige bricks and plexiglass windows. But to Claire this building was a huge first step. 

Claire walked up to the front door and pushed her way inside, other students milled around in the large corridor, occasionally opening or shutting the blue lockers that lined every side of it. Claire headed in, navigating her way through the crowd while taking in more of her surroundings. The walls and lockers had a slightly worn look and the air smelled faintly of sweat and rubber. Despite that Claire couldn’t help but smile, feeling lighter with every step.

High school, not the snooty prep school her mom kept pushing her to consider; real actual high school.

Claire broke free of the crowded hallway and into an outdoor area full of concrete picnic tables. She glanced around until she spotted the table Mary and Darci were at and jogged over to meet them.

Mary noticed her approaching and waved “Claire-Bear! Over here!” 

Claire slowed to a stop and slid into her seat “It’s great to see you guys, you have no idea how excited I am now that we’re starting high school together,”

“I know!” Darci gushed “I can’t wait to try out for the cheerleading squad,”

Claire snorted “I still think you’re nuts for not going for theatre club,”

“What can I say? The pom poms are calling me,”

“Both of you are missing the big picture,” Mary paused for dramatic effect “All the boys that will fall at our feet!” 

Claire and Darci groaned in unison. Not this again.

Mary smirked at her friends “Trust me on this,” she brandished her phone in their direction “I have over a thousand followers already, so it’s only a matter of time before I’m the queen bee of this place,” she let out a dreamy sigh “And then admirers will follow,”

Claire didn’t know why she was surprised, the schools and grades they were in might change, but some things never did “Don’t get ahead of yourself Mare, this is just our first day, it doesn’t matter how many followers you have, boys are hardly going to be lining up to--”

“Give it back!”

“Come on, you always make tons of extra,”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean--”

All three girls turned in the direction of the new voices.

Two boys were heading towards them, a red headed one holding a paper bag, and one in a blue jacket making a grab for the bag that redhead was holding.

They froze upon noticing the girls eyes on them, before quickly jerking into semi-normal postures.

“Uh...Hi?” blue jacket boy said with a nervous smile.

Darci raised an eyebrow at them “Hi?” 

Claire turned in her seat to take in the newcomers; redhead was somebody new, but she could have sworn she had seen blue jacket before.

Mary narrowed her eyes in suspicion “Can we help you with something?”

Redhead perked up “Actually yes,” he fended off one more attempt from blue jacket to take the bag and held it out towards Claire “My friend here was baking last night and accidentally made too many, would you mind taking them off our hands?”

Curious and just the slightest bit sceptical, Claire accepted the bag. Mary and Darci leaned over to get a better look as Claire reached inside.

“Are these…”

“Macarons!” Darci squealed.

Mary plucked one of the cookies out of Claire’s hand and held it up for examination “Hang on, you _ made _ these?”

Blue jacket forced out an awkward chuckle “Yep...sure did,”

That’s when it clicked. Last February. Her mom’s fundraiser at the hospital. What was his name, John? Jake?

“I don’t think we got your names,”

“Oh! I’m Jim,” he gestured to the red head by his side “This is Toby,”

Toby winked at them “The one and only,”

Claire smiled back “Nice to meet you, I’m Claire,” 

“I’m Darci,”

“I’m Mary,”

The conversation fell flat as none of them could figure out what to say next.

Claire fiddled with her thumbs “Are you guys freshmen to?”

“Yep,” Toby said with a confident smirk “We’ll probably have a lot of classes together,”

“Having students in the same grade share classes would make a lot of sense,” Darci said with just a hint of sarcasm, although judging by the grin on her face she was more amused than anything else 

“Well, it was nice meeting you guys, but Toby and I have to...get to our lockers, so...I guess I’ll see you later,”

Claire brushed a few loose strands of hair out of her face “I would like that,”

Toby took it in stride but Jim was blushing so hard he looked like a tomato. He stuttered out his own goodbye before making a hasty retreat with Toby in tow.

Claire turned back around in her seat only to come face to face with a very smug looking Mary.

“What?”

Mary gave her a knowing grin that would have been more fitting on a feline “Didn’t someone just say something about not getting ahead of ourselves?”

A blush burned to life across Claire’s cheeks “It’s not like that! They just seemed nice,”

Mary waved a cookie under Claire’s nose “And the macarons?”

“You heard what he said, Jim just made extra and they were sharing them,”

Darci popped one of the aforementioned macarons into her mouth “So that’s why you were giving him goo goo eyes the whole time,” she mumbled through a mouthful of crumbs “Just the cookies?”

Claire fixed Darci with a level stare as she finished chewing the cookie, an oh-so-innocent look on her face, Mary snickered from across the table. All Claire wanted was to talk to people in her new school,

Preferably dark haired boys that baked macarons and got punch for their moms at parties,

Without her friends reading too much into it. Was that so much to ask?

“Et tu Darci?”

* * *

Lockers and brick walls surrounded her on three sides, another dead end. Claire groaned before turning around and heading back the way she came. Seriously, why did this place have to be so huge? This was the third time this week Claire had gotten turned around on her way to the choir room. 

The back of someone’s shirt looming just inches in front of her face pulled Claire out of her grousing. She stopped in her tracks to avoid a collision. A loose crowd of sorts had gathered, growing thicker as the hallway continued on, a low buzz of whispering and hushed conversation rippled through them. 

Mary and Darci were standing off to the side, Mary was on her tiptoes trying to see through the mass of bodies while Darci just looked anxious. Hoping her friends had some idea of what was happening, Claire walked over to them. 

“You guys know what’s going on?”

Darci turned upon hearing her voice “Jim Lake started crying in the middle of the hall,”

Hearing that name caused Claire to freeze in her tracks.

Jim Lake, from the fundraiser, macaron boy.

“He was crying? Why?”

“No one knows, one minute he was fine, the next he was sobbing on the floor,”

Mary spoke up for the first time, startling both of them “Which is why we’re going to figure out what happened,” 

Before she could ask Mary exactly what she meant by that, Señor Uhl’s voice started booming from the other side of the crowd; in response, the gathered students started to walk away, a few straight up ran.

Claire was right about to join them, if there was one teacher who’s bad side you did _ not _ want to be on it was Señor Uhl, when Mary grabbed her and Darci’s wrists, pulling them down the hall after her as she dashed away.

After numerous twists and turns Mary finally let them go and peeked around the corner of the corridor they were in. Claire glanced around, the halls were clear now, class must have started. She gave her jacket zipper a nervous tug, if she got caught ditching classes in her first week of school her mom would be_ pissed_.

Whatever Mary’s scheme was Darci was having none of it “Mare, what are you--”

“Shh!” Mary hissed and made frantic shushing motions at them before jerking back and pressing herself against the lockers.

Curious, Claire risked a peek around the corner and saw Toby jogging up from the opposite end of the hall. Gone was the over confident boy they had met on Monday, this Toby looked ashen and postively stricken. He slowed to a stop and went through a door on the wall perpendicular to her, disappearing from her sight.

Less than a second after the door shut behind him Mary ran ahead, Claire and Darci following on her heels. In one fluid motion Mary slid to her knees and pressed her ear against the door. Dacri hung back, restlessly glancing back and forth down either side of the hall. Claire recognized this room, this was the front office, she’d been in here a bunch of times while she was getting registered.

It was only then that she noticed the sound of voices coming from inside. 

“Do you have any idea why James-- Jim, was so out of sorts?”

That was Mr. Strickler, their history teacher. He was talking about Jim. The desire to snoop overriding every ounce of common sense in her body, Claire moved next to Mary and pressed her own ear against the door. Darci muttered something about how her dad was going to ground her until she was thirty before joining them.

“I know you’re worried about Jim, but if he needs help, any information you can give would be greatly appreciated, and I promise, nothing you say will leave this room,”

Claire’s hands were trembling against the wood of the door, her pulse pounded in her ears like a drum. She shouldn’t be listening to this. She should not be listening right now.

Toby’s voice rang out next, sending Claire’s heart straight up into her throat “It’s just that...today’s his birthday…which was also the day his dad walked out...ten years ago,”

Claire had to cover her mouth to keep from gasping. 

She had a feeling that she just learned something she had _ no _ business knowing.

Strickler was saying something else now but Claire didn’t hear.

No wonder Jim had started crying.

Claire was yanked back to reality by Mary and Darci pulling her away from the door. It was just in time to, no sooner did they sprint back around the corner than Toby came out and started heading in their direction.

The girls froze and pressed their backs against the lockers as hard as they could. Claire held her breath as Toby stepped around the corner and walked right past her. Mercifully, Toby didn’t look up, keeping his head slumped down, staring at his shoes as he walked by. Immediately after Toby was far enough past them, they raced into the nearest bathroom for cover.

They stood in silence for a few seconds, the only sound their frantic breathing echoing off the stall doors, while they waited for someone to burst through the door and bust them for eavesdropping. After a few minutes passed, it slowly became apparent that they had gotten away with it.

For better or worse.

Darci spoke up first “That was...wow,”

Claire eyed Mary uncertainly, she knew her friend was a huge fan of gossip, but this... “You won’t share this on your blog, right?”

Mary leaned back against the wall and sank to the ground “No,” she mumbled “I just thought he didn’t get on the football team or something, not...this,”

Claire turned and leaned heavily against the bathroom counter, porcelain cold against her palms. She wasn’t naive, she knew that just because she had a mom and a dad didn’t mean everyone else did. Some kids had just one, or an uncle, or a grandma, even two moms or dads. 

And sometimes...moms or dads weren’t good people.

Claire lifted her head to face her reflection. It might not have been her idea to eavesdrop, but she could have stopped Mary, instead she’d gone right along with it. And now they all knew a big fat personal secret that none of them had any right to know.

Needing something to do with her hands, Claire turned on the sink and splashed her face with water. She might have just met Jim, but he seemed really nice, nicer than most of the other boys their age. And now he was going to have to deal with being the kid that started crying in front of everyone.

Claire wanted to do something, anything, to make him feel better. About his dad and for what just happened. But if she tried to reach out and cheer him up he’d probably just think it was out of pity. 

Not to mention that she could _ never _ let it slip that they knew about his dad.

Her hands went limp under the streaming faucet. How could she reach out without seeming insincere?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while but the sequel to You are my Sunshine is here. I won't be getting to trolls or Trollhunting in this instalment, but Toby and others will find out about Jim's troll form and how/why the bath bomb of doom came to be will be revealed. 
> 
> I have time to write, but I'm working on multiple projects to keep from becoming burned out on any one thing. Between that and my med tech program, unfortunately I can't stick to any strict update schedule. While I can't promies anything, I going to try to get an update published every few weeks or at least one a month.


	2. Jim

Jim stood at the entrance to Arcadia Oaks high school, feet rooted to the ground. He  _ really _ didn’t want to go inside.

After sobbing in the car for no less than a solid hour last Thursday he and his mom had gone home to spend the rest of the day crying off and on and fighting back abject misery. Next morning things weren't much better, Jim had stood at the front door for nearly twenty minutes, lunch and book bag in hand, trying to find the will to force himself to go outside and bike to school. In the end his mom had found him like that and called him out sick again. Jim ended up spending Friday hanging out in the staff lounge at the clinic visiting with his mom on her breaks.

The entire time he had avoided Toby and only communicated with him through vague texts, dreading giving him an actual explanation for all of this. 

On Saturday Toby had forced the issue and showed up at his house in person. He hadn’t said anything, just held up a DVD of the Great British Baking show in one hand and an extra gande size bag of tacos in the other.

If he hadn’t been completely emotionally wrung out by that point Jim would have cried. 

One weekend later that brought him here, Monday morning, getting ready to go in and face the social fallout of bursting into tears in the middle of the school. Jim wasn’t so naive as to think that there wouldn’t be any. And to add a cherry on top of the disaster sundae that today was sure to be, Toby had to go to the orthodontist and wouldn’t get here until lunch. Meaning Jim was going to be facing the tender mercies of his peers alone.

His gut twisted, if things were hard at school before, they were about to get even harder.

But no matter how bad this was going to be, no matter how much crap Steve and every other jerk in school was going to give him; going to in and facing the music, even without Toby’s support, was better than spending a long day alone in his house.

Anything was better than that.

Sucking in a final deep breath, Jim steeled himself and walked inside.

Mercifully, he didn’t run into any trouble getting to his locker and making his way through the halls. But Jim knew better than to let that get his hopes up. Resisting the urge to hightail it to the other side of town, or preferably even further than that, Jim walked up to first period algebra and pushed the door open.

Ms. Janeth wasn’t here yet, but more than half of the students already were. Sitting and standing around talking while they waited for class to start. The creak of the door opening caused the buzz of conversation to dim and several people to turn and stare in his direction. Which was perfectly normal, that’s just what people did when someone came into the room, they weren’t staring at him in particular. Although some of them held their gazes long enough to make him start doubting that. 

Jim made his way to his desk in silence. Just when he was about to sit down, someone’s palm made contact with the back of his head, and not gently.

He spun around on reflex, only to come face to face with his absolute least favorite person in the world.

“I’m surprised that you’re willing to show your face around here again  _ Lake _ ,” Steve said with a nasty smirk “We don’t usually let crybabies come to the big kid school, but if you really want to stick around, I’m sure we can find some diapers for you,”

Jim glowered, cheeks burning, but said nothing as he slid into his desk. From all around him came snickering and whispers of ‘Crybaby Lake’.

Less than half an hour in and things were already going to hell. Great, just great.

Fortunately Ms. Janeth came in less than a minute later, putting an end to the murmurs and giggles. Class was relatively normal, Ms. Janeth lecturing on algebra and working through problems while Jim tried to force himself to pay attention.

Even though he wasn’t going to make anything of himself after high school so there was no damn point to studying algebra so what was the point of even trying anymore.

An hour of algebra later the bell rang, signalling for everyone to pack up and head to the next class. Jim had stuffed his papers into his bag and stood up out of his desk when Ms. Janeth stepped over to him.

“Jim, could I have a word with you?”

He froze, a teacher had never approached him like this before, meaning that this was no doubt a direct result of his public meltdown last week “Uh...ok,”

She waited until everyone else had left the room, some of his classmates lingering and glancing back at them not so discreetly as they went through the door.

Once they were alone she spoke up against, voice soft “Is everything... alright with you?” 

At first Jim wasn’t sure if he heard her correctly. Was he alright? A common, innocent question. One that had him biting the inside of his cheek to keep from screaming.

Alright.

He was on house arrest every night, doomed to become an unemployed recluse after school was over, and one day he would die old, friendless, and alone. Of course that was all assuming no one figured out his secret and shipped him off to be alien autopsied.

Jim was pretty much as goddamn far from  _ alright _ as a person could. 

He forced a smile “Yeah I’m good,”

Ms. Janeth frowned, apparently Jim wasn’t very convincing “Well if you ever do have any...issues, I’m here to help,”

Jim mumbled out a thank you before making a hasty retreat and scampering off to his next class.

Health and Spanish class were much of the same; sideways stares and whispers from his classmates, and Coach Lawrence and Señor Uhl pulling him aside afterwards to ask if everything was ok and tell him that they could help or just listen if he ever needed it.

You know you’ve hit rock bottom when even Señor Uhl takes pity on you.

Finally, after the longest morning of his entire life, lunch period came.

Jim cycled through his breathing exercises as he headed into the cafeteria, stomach growling. He hadn't packed a lunch this morning; just getting up and getting dressed had been utterly draining. Even waiting in line to buy some french fries sounded unbearably exhausting. Guess that meant he was skipping today. Steve had a different lunch period, so at the very least Jim would be able to get a break from him.

So far school was still better than being home alone, but not by much.

He took a seat at an unoccupied cafeteria table and pulled out his phone, hopefully the new Go-go Sushi app could take his mind off of things for a bit. Jim had been at it for about ten minutes and burned through four out of five lives when Toby showed up at his table, catching him completely off guard, over an hour early and carrying a large pizza box.

“I figured Chef Jim could use a break,” Toby beamed at him as he set the box down onto the table “So for the next five days, you let me worry about lunch,”

Jim was stunned and more than a little touched “Tobes you--”

“Up up up,” Toby held up a hand “Sorry Jimbo, I’m not taking no for an answer, you’re just going to have to get used to take out a la Toby for the rest of the week,”

Tears brimmed at the edge of Jim’s vision, he blinked rapidly to dispel them before they could fall. Toby had been his rock throughout the entire disaster that was his life, never prying or asking questions, always there with cheerful support and comfort. He was the greatest friend Jim could ever have.

It was going to hurt so  _ so _ much when Toby went to college and left him behind. 

“Thanks Tobes,”

Toby took a seat next to him and opened the box “Anytime,”

Jim reached in and grabbed the closest slice, Toby following suit. It wasn’t until he took the first bite that he realized just how hungry he was.

They’d been chewing their wonderfully greasy pizza in silence for a few minutes when Jim saw someone approach their table from the corner of his eye. Of course, today just had to be one of those days when Seamus decided to bother them without Steve acting as the muscle. He swallowed his mouthful of pizza and snapped his head up to tell Seamus to get lost only to freeze.

A girl with blue streaked dark hair stood in front of him.

It was Claire.

_ The _ Claire.

The girl who’d been in his dreams ever since that fundraiser last February.

“Hi,” she said with a small smile.

Jim’s heart fluttered. Claire was  _ talking  _ to him.

“Oh...hi,”

“How are things?”

Jim, fumbled, trying to remember how to put words together “Oh, uh...things are...good...I guess,”

Claire tugged at the edge of her jacket “So me, Mary, and Darci really liked the macarons you shared with us,”

The memory flickered behind his eyes, Toby snatching the cookies he had made the night before and sharing them with Claire and her friends in order to ‘make a good first impression’. 

Had that only happened a week ago? 

“So to say thank you...we were wondering, maybe, if you guys want to go to the county fair with us with us this weekend?”

Jim’s mouth went dry. Of all things he expected to happen his first day back, this was not one of them “The county fair? I, uh….”

“No pressure, think about it for a bit,” she piped up, voice half an octave higher “Let me know what you decide,”

She scurried off, gone just as quickly as she had come.

Jim was still trying to restart his brain when he felt Toby elbow him in the side “ _ Oh my gosh!  _ Claire just totally asked you out!”

“What? No, you heard her, it’s a group thing, you’re invited to,”

“Po-ta-to po-tah-to, I know what it looks like when a girl’s been bitten by the love bug. You’re going to tell her yes, right?”

“I...don’t know,” 

An hour later Jim was sitting in history class half listening to Mr. Strickler’s lecture, still turning Claire’s offer over and over in his mind. 

A week ago, he would have said yes in a millisecond, but that was before. Thoughts of Claire still made him blush, but what could she possibly see in him? Claire had to know about Jim’s breakdown, why would she want anything to do with him? She’d said that it was a thank you to him and Toby for the macarons. But macrons wouldn’t outweigh a public crying fit. Maybe this was just a pity offer in disguise.

Jim’s stomach knotted up as an ever worse idea took shape. Maybe this whole county fair thing was just a way to trick him and humiliate him even more.

But Claire wouldn’t do that, would she?

A wadded up piece of paper hit him in the back of the head, derailing his train of thought. Jim grimaced and tried to ignore it, two more wads of paper and that became impossible.

Glancing back, Jim saw Steve smirking at him, he then pretended to rub his balled up hand against his eye, doing a bad pantomime of someone crying, Seamus and Logan snickered and high fived him behind his back.

Jim bit back a slew of choice four letter words and turned forward again, from a few seats ahead and to the right he could see Toby shoot him a sympathetic glance.

Seriously, could Steve just  _ not _ for one hour of their lives? Jim had enough on his plate as it was.

Class seemed to drag on forever, but finally the bell rang and the students started filing out, Jim lingered, packing up his bag with deliberate slowness. Toby waited by the door, but Jim waved him on. He hesitated, clearly uncertain, before walking away, giving Jim one final lingering glance.

Mr. Strickler was cleaning off the blackboard, he hadn’t noticed that Jim was still here. Jim cautiously stepped to the front of the classroom, ignoring the little voice in the back of his head shouting to get out before he made things awkward and weird. Before he could act on that instinct, Mr. Strickler finally noticed him loitering.

He turned and smiled “Ah Jim, normally I would ask if you need something, but I assume every other teacher you’ve had so far has given you some variation the same question. I’m curious, how did Señor Ulh’s offer of assistance go?”

Involuntarily, the corners of Jim’s mouth quirked up, the expression feeling almost foreign on his face. A smile. The first genuine one in days. 

Somehow Mr. Strickler had known the exact right thing to say to make him feel just a tiny bit better, in spite of everything.

None of the teachers here were  _ bad _ , but Mr. Strickler was the one who had pulled Jim up off the floor last week, brought him to his office, let him cry until he was semi functional again, called his mom to take him home.

Maybe it was irrational, but Jim trusted him just a little bit more.

“Actually...there was something I wanted to ask you,”

Mr. Strickler stopped what he was doing, putting down the rag and turning to face him fully “What seems to be the issue?”

“Well...you see, it’s…” Jim struggled to translate the gnarled knot of emotions into words “There’s this girl,”

“A girl?”

“Yeah, and she wants me and Toby to go hang out with her and her friends,”

One of Mr. Strickler’s eyebrows quirked up “And you don’t wish to do this?”

“Yes-- I mean no! I mean, I do want to, but I just...” Jim trailed off helplessly.

“You know this girl and her friends, correct?”

“We’ve...met,”

“And does the idea of spending time with them sound fun?”

Jim thought about it for a few seconds before swallowing hard and nodding.

Mr. Strickler gave a wry smile and picked up a pen from his desk, “I think I might know what your problem is,”

“You do?” even Jim wasn’t sure what his problem was.

“It sounds to me that you would like very much to go on this outing, but you’re intimidated by the idea of putting yourself out there with new people and terrified that something will go wrong,”

“That...sounds right,” Jim mumbled, he was embarrassed about having it laid out like that, but at the same time he was glad Strickler was able to explain what Jim couldn’t find the words for.

“So...I should tell her yes?”

Mr. Strickler chuckled “I think you should do whatever feels best for you. Keep in mind, while there is a certain amount of risk involved with making a change and opening yourself to new people, as a great man once said, t here can be no life without change, and to be afraid of what is different or unfamiliar is to be afraid of life ,”

Jim’s blood turned to ice in his veins. He struggled to keep his face blank.

If Mr. Strickler noticed Jim’s sudden change in mood he didn’t comment on it, merely capped the pen and slipped it into his pocket “And if I may be so bold, I think you could benefit greatly from a deviation in your routine,”

Mr. Strickler didn’t know, he couldn’t have meant the words that way, but hearing them cut Jim to the bone.

There can be no life without change. 

A life trapped in his house, a life of slogging through the same old routine just because he didn’t know what else to do. Powerless to alter his inevitable future. 

Jim balled his fingers into fists so the trembling wouldn’t be too obvious. His life wasn’t all doom and gloom, but Jim had gotten to the point where even the best things about his life, Mom and Toby, could barely keep him going.

He wanted more.

To be able to live free from secrecy and fear, to spend just one night of his life outside his house with other people. To be able to have an actual future.

But Jim wasn’t going to get that. No matter how badly he wanted it.

He took a deep breath to steady himself, Mr. Strickler’s words buzzing around in his skull.

A deviation from the routine. 

Claire’s face flashed in his mind.

Jim wasn’t going to get what he wanted, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have more.

Mr. Strickler was right, there was a risk, a huge risk. But the potential for something different, something new, was worth it. Even if it wouldn’t change anything long term. 

“That makes sense,” Jim hefted his bag over his shoulder “I think I know what I need to do now,” he started hurrying towards the door, if he was quick he could meet up with Claire and give her an answer before next period “Thanks Mr. Strickler,”

Mr. Strickler waved back as Jim walked away “I’m glad I could be of some help,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, when Jim finally figures out Strickler's a changeling it is going to HURT. 
> 
> The quote Strickler uses is from Teddy Roosevelt, it took forever to find a quote relating to change that I liked well enough to use.


	3. Darci

Darci spotted the two boys pulling into the parking lot on their bikes. Without turning she reached over and tapped Mary on the shoulder “They’re here,”

Mary glanced up from her phone towards the newcomers, pressing a button to make the screen go dark before sliding it into her pocket. 

Jim and Toby came to a stop in front of them and began locking their bikes into the nearby racks “Good afternoon ladies,” Toby said while shutting his bike lock with way more flourish than was needed “I trust the ride here was pleasant enough?”

Darci was barely able to keep from groaning while Mary disguised a snicker as a cough, “Yeah, my dad dropped us off,” Toby wasn’t nasty with his flirting, not compared to some of the jerks they’d had to deal with, but it got old  _ fast _ .

Jim stood up from his bike and glanced around the parking lot “So, uh...is Claire here? I thought she said--” 

“Here I am!” Claire jogged up to the group, panting from the exertion of her short run “I had to get the wristbands from my mom,” she handed out four strips of waxy paper, keeping the fifth to fasten around her own wrist “These should get us on any ride here,”

Jim’s eyes practically popped out of his skull “You didn’t have to buy all these, my mom gave me some money to--”

“It’s no big deal. As one of the city council members hosting the fair she gets a certain number of wristbands for free,”

“Oh...that’s cool,” 

They finished attaching the wristbands and headed into the fairgrounds proper. In no time at all they were surrounded by eye burningly bright primary colors splashed onto every structure and tent, metal creaked against metal as the rides started up with the first passengers of the afternoon. And it smelled like something, or maybe everything, was being being deep fried.

Darci eyed the boys walking a few steps ahead between her and her friends. They seemed alright as far as boys went, but hanging out with people that weren’t Claire or Mary just felt weird. But that wasn’t a reason to not hang out with them. If anything that was  _ more  _ of a reason. When Darci started high school she’d made a promise to herself. Get out of her comfort zone, spend time with people that she wasn’t friends with already.

Steeling herself, Darci sucked in a big breath through her nose. 

She could do this.

Her own personal goals aside, this whole thing had been Claire’s idea. To try and reach out to Jim after what had happened two weeks ago.

Not to mention they’d learned some pretty nasty details about why exactly Jim had broken down in the first place.

Claire had practically begged her and Mary to come with today, so that Jim wouldn’t think this was just a pity date. Not that she had to twist Darci’s arm too hard. She was always willing to lend a hand, especially when it involved going to the county fair. And if it forced her to spend time with new people, that was just an added bonus.

Now time to put operation Darci-comes-out-of-her-shell into action.

“So what do we want to do first?” she piped up.

They all glanced around at the various rides and booths, Mary’s gaze landed on a large, white tent “How about we see what’s in there?”

“Sure,”

“Sounds good,”

“I’m ok with anything,”

Reaching a lukewarm agreement, the five of them headed over to the tent in question. Stepping inside, Darci was hit with an odor that was musty and undeniably animal. Looking around, she saw that the whole tent was full of small to medium sized cages sitting on the straw covered ground and on plastic tables set up around the room. 

“I think this is where 4H is showing some of their animals,”

Toby crept closer to one of the cages, looking at the swan contained in it with wide eyes, only for the bird to flare it’s wings and hiss menacingly at him, causing all five of them to jump back.

Jim let out a nervous laugh “Hah...didn’t know swans could hiss like that,”

Darci raised an eyebrow “Have you  _ seen _ canadian geese? Birds are monsters,”

Mary edged around the swan’s cage, making sure to never turn her back to it “Maybe we should skip the birds...”

They moved over to the other side of the tent, it looked like this was the rabbit area, based on the abundance of bunnies in the cages around them.

Claire fiddled with the tag on one of the enclosures “I wonder what they judge rabbits for?”

“Says here that this one is a ‘Holland Lop’,” Mary said while squinting at a cream colored rabbit with long floppy ears “‘Junior buck’, whatever that means,”

Claire stepped over to the Holland Lop cage and looked in, Darci and the boys joining them.

“What I’m wondering,” Darci asked “Is what they do with all these rabbits after the competition is over,”

They all pondered over that for a moment.

“Meat maybe?” Toby chimed in.

They all looked back at the adorable little bunny sitting in its cage and winced. Darci thought she could even see Jim turn a little green. 

Toby flushed and shifted from foot to foot. The silence awkward and heavy.

Darci wasn’t  _ against  _ eating rabbit meat, at least not in principle, but definitely not while looking at one of the cute little balls of fluff.

Needing to do something to break the tension, Darci scrolled over all the rabbit cages, only to do a double take when she got to the end of the row. Not quite believing what she was seeing, Darci stepped closer to it “Guys,” she pointed at the cage sitting on the end “Look,”

They all turned towards the cage in question, each of them freezing in turn before slowly approaching. The cage held a rabbit, much like the others, but with one  _ huge _ difference.

“Awesomesauce….” Toby said in a hushed, reverent whisper.

Reaching over, Mary pulled up the tag “Apparently it's a ‘Flemish Giant’,”

Claire leaned her face right up against the wire of the cage “I didn’t even know rabbits could get this big,”

The rest of them made sounds of assent, still fixed on the almost comically oversized rabbit that was still chewing on its grass, oblivious to the teenagers gawking at it. 

“This thing’s the size of a coyote,” Darci said, still reeling from the fact that this rabbit could actually exist in real life.

“I’m pretty sure even coyotes are smaller than this,” Jim added.

Claire snorted “Can you imagine, a coyote sticks its head into a rabbit hole only to come face with twenty pounds of solid bunny?”

A giggle rippled through the group.

“That would be awesome!” Toby got right near the cage next to Mary “I totally want to see this guy duke it out with a coyote now,”

“Tobes I’m pretty sure the people here wouldn’t be down with animal fight club,”

“But could you imagine!”

They all laughed. 

And just like that, the ice was broken. 

Once they were done looking at the animals, they all went and checked out the rides, which were all pretty fun, in a sketchy, county fair kind of way.

After the teacups they made a unanimous decision to take a break from rides before someone,

Claire, and Darci if she was honest with herself,

Puked, moving to the games. They were all rigged across the board, Darci knew that, but they could still be fun.

Forty minutes and thirty dollars later, all they had to show for it was a fish that Toby won and graciously declined at ring toss,

Apparently it wouldn’t get along with his Nana’s cats,

And the giant plush penguin Mary had somehow defied the odds and managed to pop ten balloons in a row to get.

Once they’d been forced to quit at the games for the sake of their lightening wallets and empty stomachs, the five of them migrated towards the food tents to get something to eat.

Snacks bought and paid for; Claire, Mary, and Toby wasted no time tucking in. Jim and Darci held back, eyeing the...food...in front of them suspiciously.

“C'mon guys,” Mary said between bites of her corn dog “It’s not going to kill you,”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that….” Jim said while nervously prodding at the golden brown lump in front of him with his fork “I like cheesecake as much as the next guy, but deep frying it seems like a mistake...”

Darci looked down at her own cheesecake uncertainly, her feelings exactly.

“Quit being such a food snob Jim,” Toby chided “We didn’t come to the county fair to  _ not _ eat delicious fried foods of dubious origin,”

“Just try it guys,” Claire’s own fried cheesecake had been reduced to a paper wrapper and the wooden stick it came on “I swear it’s really good,”

Darci and Jim shared a grimace, knowing that they had lost the battle. Gingerly, Darci tore off a chunk of cheesecake with her fork and raised it to her mouth, Jim doing the same. 

She bit down and started chewing, preparing herself for the worst, but much to her surprise, it was scrumptious. The crispy fried outside and the sweet, creamy cheesecake filling went together perfectly.

“Ok I admit it,” Jim said, the picture of defeat “This is delicious,”

“Told you so,” Toby said in a sing-song tone while Mary and Claire smirked at them.

Darci opted to ignore them in favor of eating more cheesecake.

The loud beeping of a phone alarm made Darci jump in her seat and swallow her cheesecake prematurely.

Jim slipped his phone out of his pocket, causing the ringing to intensify, before he tapped the screen a few times until the sound stopped. He slid the phone back into his jacket pocket before gathering up his food.

“Sorry guys, I have to take off now,”

Skeptical, Darci glanced towards the horizon. It was  _ really _ early, the sun wasn’t even down yet. What was the rush?

“Already?” Claire lowered the deep fried oreo she had been preparing to take a bite of. She sounded pretty disappointed. Of course she was, Jim was her secret, not-so-secret, crush “Do you have to go now? There’s going to be a fireworks show later,”

Jim flashed them an apologetic look while folding the paper wrapper around his cheesecake “Sorry, my mom really doesn’t like me being out too late,” 

“Don’t worry about it,” Darci jumped in, if there was anyone that understood overprotective parents, it was her “We can hang out some more later,”

Claire’s deep fried oreo fell out of her hand and Mary’s eyes widened. They had all agreed to go to the fair together, but none of them had said anything about what they would do beyond tonight.

The stunned looks on her friends’ faces didn’t bother Darci one bit. She knew what she was doing, Toby and Jim were a lot of fun. Definitely people that they could spend more time with. 

Operations Darci-comes-out-of-her-shell and help-Claire-with-her-not-pity-date were both off to a terrific start.

Toby was smiling from ear to ear and Jim visibly brightened at this “That...sounds really nice,” he stood from the table, picked up his food, and started heading towards where his bike was parked “I’ll see you guys later, thanks again for inviting us,”

“See you tomorrow Jim,” Toby waved as his friend walked away “I’ll try to win you a stuffed animal,”

“Bye,” 

“See you later,”

“Have a good night,” 

Darci, Mary, and Claire joined Toby in waving and saying goodbye, actions Jim mirrored until he was out of sight. 

There was a brief murmuring of disappointment at Jim’s departure, but the cheerful mood quickly returned. All of them, four now, finishing their food and getting ready to go back to the rides. 

Darci swallowed the last few bites of her cheesecake and chucked the stick in the trash. Tonight was going great. Jim and Toby were nice guys, and they’d all had a lot of fun.

They should definitely do this again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! Enjoy this nice fluffy chapter where these beans get to enjoy the county fair.
> 
> (Now wave goodbye, that's the last of the fluff for a long time)


	4. Mary

Mary wanted to let out an indignant scoff, but seeing how her mouth was full of nachos she settled for a scowl. Seriously, it had been two days and Dean _ still _ hadn’t texted her back. At first she had just been annoyed, now she was straight up mad. 

No more playing nice, if Dean wanted her back it was going to cost him a date with pizza _ and _ ice cream.

A wry smile broke through her frown. 

Of course it wasn’t like she _ needed _ Dean, plenty of other boys would give anything to go out with her. Henry, otherwise known as Tight-Jeans Hank, had just asked her to go to the basketball game this week, maybe she should take him up on it, show Dean what he was missing out on.

“I didn’t make the team,”

Mary practically jumped out of her seat. She was so engrossed in her texts that she hadn’t even noticed Darci sitting down across from her.

“What?”

Darci was staring down at the logo stamped into the middle of the table, eyes scrunched and mouth crumpled. It took Mary a few seconds to realize she was holding back tears.

“The cheerleading team, I didn’t make the cut,”

Mary gently slid her phone into her pocket “Sorry...that sucks,”

Heat started to bloom on her face as silence stretched out between the two of them, thick and tacky. Mary never knew what to say in these kinds of situations. She couldn't just tell Darci it wasn’t as bad as it seemed, in her track record saying that never went over well. Bottom line, Mary sucked at making people feel better when they were down. Whatever she tried always seemed to make things worse. 

Fortunately both of them were saved when Claire came swooping in and planted herself in the seat beside Darci.

“I’m so sorry,” Claire reached over grasped Darci’s hand with hers “That must be such a let down after all your hard work,”

Darci’s lower lip trembled “I knew they weren’t going to let more than one or two freshman onto the team, but I thought that maybe I was good enough…”

She trailed off as Claire patted the back of her hand “You’re plenty good enough Darci, they probably just didn’t have enough spots available. I’m sure that next year they’ll be glad to have you,” 

“Thanks Claire,”

Mary watched as Claire successfully pulled Darci back from the brink of tears, wriggling uncomfortably, wishing she could be half as comforting and sweet as Claire. She didn’t envy her friends for a lot of things, but this was one of them.

She sat up straighter as an idea came to her. Mary might suck at sympathy, but maybe she could help by providing a welcome distraction. 

“Yeah, you’ll be on the team for sure next year,” Mary’s eyes twinkled “Maybe by then Claire will have finally asked Jimmy-Jam out,”

The sharp look on Claire’s face made Mary wonder if this had been the right move after all. Then Darci let out a small laugh and she stopped wondering. 

She let herself relax a little bit, Claire still looked pissed about her love life being brought up, but Darci was smiling so Mary decided to roll with it.

“Yesterday you went on and on about how today was the day you were finally going to do it, but in the end you chickened out,” she smirked “Again,”

Claire didn’t reply to that but her rapidly pinkening cheeks did all the talking.

Darci giggled, successfully distracted now “Come on Claire, we’ve been hanging out with the boys for weeks, when are you planning on actually telling Jim that you like-like him?”

She let out a deep sigh “Soon, ok, soon,” 

“You know Claire, the longer you wait, the more likely it is some other girl snaches him up,”

“What!”

“What Mare means...” Darci said while throwing a knowing look in Mary’s direction “Is if you really like Jim you should just tell him that, get the words out there” she placed a reassuring hand on Claire’s shoulder “And if it makes you feel better, I think that Jim likes you to,” 

“You...think so?”

“Better hurry, I saw Valerie eyeing him during social studies,”

If looks could kill Claire would have her dead on the ground “Are you actually invested in my love life or do you just want to watch me suffer?”

“Yes,”

Claire looked back and forth between Mary and Darci’s eager expressions, then buried her face into her hands with a groan “Look, I know you guys are just trying to help. But I really need to figure this out on my own. So can you just...give me some space on this,”

Translation; time to back off now.

“Ok, ok,” Mary said, knowing not to push further “But when you do ask him out, promise we’ll be the first to know?”

Claire nodded “Promise,”

Satisfied, Mary went back to her nachos, Claire and Darci following suit with their own lunches. Based on the clock it wouldn’t be long before Jim and Toby joined them. 

Strange how normal a thought that was. 

This time last year the idea of having lunch with anyone else besides her besties was unthinkable. Sometimes Mary still couldn’t believe the boys were part of their unofficial ‘group’ now.

She hadn’t had a problem going along with Claire’s county fair idea. Claire had wanted to make Jim happy and Mary wanted to make Claire happy. Just one day out, no harm no foul.

But when Darci had wanted to keep hanging around with the boys after that, Mary hadn’t exactly been thrilled.

Maintaining their hard won social status took a lot of work, and she wasn’t going to jeopardize that, not even for the boy Claire was crushing on. Besides, the three of them had been BFFs since kindergarten, and Mary wasn’t going to let just anyone butt in on that, let alone boys.

Mary didn’t have anything against boys. Actually she liked them quite a bit. Boys could be cool and pretty darn fun to hang around with, but only if a girl kept her distance. Letting a boy get too close was a rookie mistake. Mary had learned that lesson the hard way and there was no way in hell she was letting Claire or Darci get hurt like that.

So yeah, she hadn’t been down with turning this into a thing.

But Darci wanted to hang out with Toby and Jim more and of course Claire had all but jumped to agree. Even if she had put her foot down Mary was outvoted two to one, so she just gritted her teeth and put up with the boys tagging along.

Sitting together at lunch, hanging out after school. Claire even invited them along to videogame Saturday at her house; an event that had been exclusive to the three of them for years!

Mary hadn’t dropped her guard the entire time, always keeping watch for any sign that either Toby or Jim would push their newfound privilege too far.

One toe out of line and she’d kick them to the curb so fast it would leave skid marks.

She’d kept up her hypervigilance for weeks, but nothing had ever come of it. Mary had known boys that would act all nice and then do a 180 the second they had you where they wanted you, but Toby and Jim actually seemed genuinely….nice.

Jim shared his lunch when Darci was down on cash, and offered to bring an extra any time one of them needed it. Toby lent out his geology notes and kept them all from completely flunking a pop quiz. The enitre time she’d known them Jim and Toby had never been anything less than friendly and helpfull. More than that, neither of them ever acted like their good behavior entitled them to...more.

Toby and Jim weren’t just acting nice, they were nice; a little dorky maybe, but nice.

So after weeks of being on edge Mary finally eased up. The boys might not have earned her full trust just yet, but they had gained quite a bit of it, enough for her to call them friends.

And speak of the devil, Toby and Jim chose that moment to show up at their table. She waved in greeting, mouth still full. Toby smiled and waved back “How’s it going guys, oh hey Darci, did you hear about the cheer team yet?”

Darci’s face fell “I didn’t make the cut,”

Jim winced as he slid into his seat “Bummer,”

Toby looked affronted on her behalf “If they were crazy enough to turn you down that’s their loss,”

She managed a weak grin “Thanks guys,”

The conversations died down again as they all started eating in earnest. Not because they didn’t have anything to talk about, but because they didn’t have the time. Lunch period was barely long enough to get a full meal in, especially when you got your lunch from the food truck in the park like they did today. They didn’t have to rush, but they couldn’t exactly take their time either. 

Mary was able to multitask by chowing down on her nachos with her left hand and tapping at her phone with her right. 

She was finished checking her texts so she moved on to organize her calendar. Planning and coordinating all of their group’s outings took a lot of time and effort, but all four of her friends thanked her on a regular basis and let her know how much they appreciated it.

It might be a lot of hard work, but it really was good to be Queen Bee.

And when she spotted an event planned for that weekend, Mary realized it was a very good thing she decided to check her calendar when all five of them were at lunch together. 

“Darc, Claire; how much prep time will you need for your makeup on Saturday?”

Darci perked up instantly “I’ll need half an hour at the very least,”

Claire puzzled over it for a bit longer before answering “Mine should take ten, fifteen minutes tops,” 

Mary added a note to the event before turning to Jim and Toby “What about you guys?”

The two just blinked at her, Jim hesitantly raising a hand into the air “Uh, question, why are we talking about makeup?”

“To go with our costumes, duh,”

Toby nervously tapped his fingers against the table “....costumes? 

Mary gave both of them a flat, unimpressed stare “For the Halloween Hop on Saturday that we’ve been talking about for weeks. Seriously, do you guys never check Messenger?”

Jim still didn’t look like he was getting it “The Halloween Hop?”

“Yep,” Claire said with a grin “I’m going as a vampire,”

“I’m going as a corpse bride,” Darci added.

Realization dawned on Toby’s face as things clicked into place “Those sound awesomely spooky, what about you Mary?”

“Mermaid,”

“Nice,”

“So wait,” Jim spoke up, still sounding confused “That’s this weekend?”

Her eye roll practically scraped the ceiling “Yeah they’ve had flyers posted for weeks. Now spill, what are you going as and how much time are you going to need to suit up? We need to get there by six,”

_ Finally _she could see the lightbulb going off in Jim’s head as he came up to speed. 

Toby let out a sharp gasp “We should go as Freddy Kruger and Jason! I already have a hockey mask, all we need is a hat, glove, and fake machete,”

Mary nodded in approval and looked back down at her phone “Can you guys be ready at Darci’s house at six? Her dad can drive us there and my moms agreed to pick us up. Afterwards they can drop you off at home or…” 

She deliberately paused, letting the anticipation build for a few seconds. Seeing as how the boys were a little slow on the uptake Mary might as well relish the big reveal “We can all spend the night at my house, my moms will be home all night and they say it’s fine,” 

If Toby grinned any wider he was going to crack his face in half “A sleepover?! Awesomesauce!”

So Jim and Toby were in, good. Tonight Mary would let her moms know so they could exchange numbers with Jim’s mom and Toby’s Nana, then she had to make sure they had enough snacks for all five of--

“Actually…” Jim’s voice derailed her train of thought “I won’t be able to make it,” 

Mary frowned “If your mom isn’t cool with the boy-girl thing, just let my moms talk to her, they’ll make her come around,” 

Jim chewed on his lower lip, not looking reassured at all “It’s...not that...I can’t do any of it,”

Wait. What? 

“You mean you can’t come to the sleepover _ or _ the Halloween hop?”

“Nope, sorry,”

She narrowed her eyes “Is it because of your curfew?”

Jim looked down and away “No,”

Translation, it most certainly was. The real question was why she was even surprised at this point.

Mary scowled and set her phone down on the table “Seriously? Come on Jim you _ always _ bail early, can’t you ignore your crazy early curfew just this once?”

“If your mom’s worried it’s totally safe,” Darci added helpfully “We’ll be at school with the teachers or at Mary’s house with her moms the whole time,”

Claire leaned closer to him, expression hopeful and pleading “My parents can talk to her, they’re super big on safety, so if they think it’s ok for me to go you know it’s danger free,” 

Jim opened his mouth, no doubt to object, but stopped when Toby laid a hand on his shoulder.

“Dr. Lake has nothing to worry about,” Toby smiled up expectantly at him “You’re not a little kid anymore, you need a night out, your mom will understand,”

Jim shut his jaw with a click, biting back whatever rebuttal he’d had. They’d all given him a hard time about the ridiculous hours his mom wanted him home by at some point, but this was the first time all four of them had ganged up about it, leaving absolutely no room for counterarguments. 

Mary arched a single eyebrow “So do you think you can convince your mom to let you off the hook for one night?”

He snapped out of his speechlessness “It’s not that!” 

“They _ why _?” 

“The reason I can’t come is...is…” Jim stammered “...is because my mom and I...are going camping,”

Mary’s jaw dropped “You and your mom are going camping?” 

He grinned sheepishly “Yeah, it’s kind of our family thing,”

“In _ October?! _”

Jim’s already brittle smile wavered “Yeah...she’s an ER doctor so her work schedule is weird, she can’t always pick what days off she gets so we have to go camping whenever we can, right Toby?”

Looking majorly disappointed, Toby still nodded in agreement “Yeah, I remember one year her schedule was so packed you guys didn’t go on vacation for six months and then you went to Yosemite for two solid weeks,”

Claire’s face fell “So you guys can’t go on another weekend?”

“Nope, sorry,”

Mary’s eyes narrowed as she fought to keep her mouth from twisting into an ugly snarl. While she didn’t consider herself a troublemaker, Mary had gotten pretty darn good at telling people what they wanted to hear in order to weasel her way out of tight spots, like detention or extra homework. And she could tell that Jim was doing the exact same thing right now. 

Jim was lying, there was no camping trip. 

But then why couldn’t he go to the Halloween Hop, or the sleepover for that matter, or _ literally _ anything? 

Was his curfew no exceptions, or was there some other reason he couldn’t go out on Saturday. Maybe he couldn’t bear to sleep away from home? Mary had known some kids like that, but that was when they were all little, there was no way that could be going on with Jim now, could it?

Mary wanted to trust him, she already trusted Jim and Toby more than any other boys their age. 

But Jim was _ lying _ to her, to all of them.

Her fingers dug into the fabric of her jeans and Jim babbled on about the imaginary camping trip that prevented him from joining them that weekend. She was one bad decision away from reaching across the table and shaking him by the shoulders, demanding _ actual _ answers.

Quick as the thought crossed her mind, a hot wave of shame followed. 

Stealing the truth wasn’t the right way to go. Mary wanted to know what was going on with Jim, but that didn’t entitle her to his dirty laundry.

She had learned that lesson the same week she met him.

Mary took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. Jim was a friend, her friend, and she would let him keep his secrets. He could share them in his own time.

“Fine, if you can’t go you can’t go,” Mary said with she hoped was a friendly, not insincere looking, smile “Just let me know when you and your mom are going camping, that way I can plan around it, ok?”

Jim beamed back at her “You betcha,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's the trick to writing minor characters that are given very little screen-time? Figure out what parts of your personality you can project onto them then ride that horse to the races.
> 
> Seeing as how Mary's parents are never shown or mentioned on screen, I spent a lot of time figuring out what I wanted her family to be like in this story. The idea of Mary having two moms came from Becoming the Mask, but whereas in that story Mary's bio-parents divorced and her bio-mom got remarried to her step-mom (who may or may not be a changeling) in this AU, one of Mary's mom's is trans, so they're both her biological parents. 
> 
> A few of you might have noticed that updates have been few and far between. The main reason for this is I'm busy studying for the BOC exam on top of putting in my required hours at my clinical site for my med tech program. So as much as I don't like it my writing can't be my top priority now. That being said, going forward I'm going to try to update every three weeks. The last thing I want is to make a commitment that I can't keep, but sticking to a schedule might be the best thing to help me stay organized.
> 
> Coming March 6th, Barbara and Jim go on a very last minute camping trip.


	5. Barbara

Barbara pulled her coat tighter around her and shivered. The air out here was brisk and sharp, but the roaring fire in front of her helped take the edge off. And a good mug of hot tea didn’t hurt either. Still, it wasn’t about to get any warmer. Jim had said he wouldn’t be out long tonight, just a quick walk and back in time to go to bed by eleven. 

Not that the cold bothered him.

Wind rustled through the trees around her, autumnal reds and golds rustling against evergreen needles. It wasn’t really  _ that _ late in the season, but it certainly wasn’t early either. Barbara and Jim usually prefered to do their trips during the more palatable times of year, then again, this wasn’t one of their usual trips.

She might be oblivious more often than she cared to admit, but Barbara wasn’t blind. She saw the posters printed on orange and black paper hanging on the community board at the hospital. Heard her coworkers talk about all the plans their kids were making together. Plans involving candy and costumes and spending the night out on the town. Plans no teenager would dare turn down without very good reason.

Like say a family vacation.

So when Jim called her during the middle of school three days ago, begging her to take the weekend off and go camping, she hadn’t been very surprised.

Saddened, but not surprised.

Pulling an impromptu camping trip off hadn’t been easy by any means. Between the lateness of the season and the incredibly short notice, Barbara had barely been able to get the reservations in place, not to mention gathering all the supplies they needed. But she had rolled up her sleeves, dug in her heels, and made magic happen. 

And now here they were. Sitting in the middle of the woods, pretending that they would both rather be here than at home celebrating the holiday with friends and family.

A burning sensation built up behind her eyes. Barbara set her mug to the side, if she tried to drink anything now she’d only end up choking on her own tears.

It wasn’t fair, not to either of them, but especially to Jim. She knew being cooped because of his transformations was hard. Even more so when he had to say no to going out and having fun with his friends.

On some days the only way Barbara was able to get up in the morning was by telling herself that all of this was temporary. One day she would find a cure and Jim would be free of his transformations, then they both would be able to live their lives without this nightmare. 

Things might be bad now, but only for a little while, sooner or later it would end. For years she had told herself this and for years it had worked.

At least until Jim’s last birthday. When Barbara stopped being so sure that there would even be an end.

She stuffed the dismal thoughts into the back of her mind and tried to force herself to relax in her seat. No point working herself into a downward spiral. It hadn’t worked the first dozen times she’d done it, no reason to think it would be any more productive now. 

Looking around while pulling her jacket tighter around her shoulders, Barbara checked the periphery of their campsite for signs of Jim’s return. She couldn’t see much, the fire was bright but not that bright. The only things she had a clear view of were her small tent, the clear area laid down with blankets on top of a tarp for Jim, the electric lantern behind her bolstering the dim firelight, the ATV they used to get out here, their cooler and chest full of supplies, and just a fraction of the miles of forest around her. 

No sign of Jim.

Barbara glanced at her watch, sighed, threw another log on the fire, grabbed a couple of magazines from the stack, and settled in to wait. Jim always told her not to wait up for him, but it wasn’t like she could sleep without knowing where her son was. Better to pass the time with a magazine. Barbara never went camping without a fat stack of them. They could help her pass the time when Jim was out on his walks and could be repurposed as kindling so they didn’t have to haul them back. She always made a point to grab some from the waiting room at work when they cycled the new issues in. 

Reaching over to the stack at her feet, she glanced between the copies of  _ People _ and  _ National Geographic _ before tossing the  _ People _ into the fire. Gossip rags had never been her thing.

Yawning, Barbara thumbed through the  _ National Geographic _ . Hopefully this would keep her more entertained. One of the cover stories looked promising,  _ ‘The Salem Witch Trials: Over three centuries later’ _ . Sounded better than celebrity gossip at least. 

Barbara flipped to the corresponding page and started the article using the speed reading techniques she learned in medical school. It was ok, but pretty ho-hum, no more or less entertaining than watching the History channel. Should be an adequate way to pass the next twenty minutes. 

Which was exactly what Barbara planned on doing until she came to a line that caused the world around her to come crashing down around her.

Whipping her head to the side Barbara coughed and sputtered up the tea that had gotten rediverted into her lungs due to her shock. 

She couldn’t have read what she just did, it was impossible, delusional even. 

But when she turned back toward the page with a pounding heart there it was. A deceptively innocuous line of text buried in the middle of the article.

_ The true witch hunt began with the arrests of Tituba, Sarah Osbourne, and Sarah Good. _

Sarah Good.

The same name tied to the mystery that haunted their family for the past ten years.

For a few seconds she forgot how to breathe, just sat there staring at the words printed in cheap ink on even cheaper paper. Mouth open, sitting frozen rigid in her seat, gears whiring as her brain processed all the implications of this.

Was it just a coincidence? Sarah Good couldn’t be that rare of a name, or could there be a connection? 

It was a stretch, even by the Lake family’s standards. 

Her fifteen year old son turned blue and sprouted horns when the sun went down and had been doing so for the past decade. Nothing was off the table. 

She flipped back and began rereading the article with much more intensity, blood rushing in her ears.

Moral panic, mass hysteria, mob mentality. According to the stuffy old professors that wrote the article there wasn’t anything even remotely magical about the Salem witch trials. 

But they hadn’t seen the things Barbara had, lived the things she’d lived.

Was it somehow possible that one of these long ago women was more than she seemed? Had a touch of something that could still be causing ripples centuries later?

The paper crinkled under her fingers. If there really was a connection, and Barbara wasn’t sure that there was, then this was their biggest break in years.

As soon as she got home Barbara was going to take this new lead and hit the library, hit Wikipedia, hit anything and everything that might offer her the slightest clue. There was a chance, however faint, that history might hold some of the answers that had eluded them for a decade.

Her lips parted as she leaned in and skewered the magazine with her gaze, feeling almost feverish.

A dream, an idea, too lofty and terrifying to imagine flickered to life in the back of her mind, despite her best efforts to snuff it out before her hopes could rise too high.

Barbara knew first hand how much it hurt when hope was dashed to pieces, but she had forgotten just how intoxicating it could be.

If history had the answers, then it just might have a cu--

“Mom?”

Barbara shrieked, tea sloshed out of her mug and the magazine went flying.

Jim took a hesitant step back “Sorry, did I scare you?”

“NO! no-- I just--” Barbara glanced back towards where the magazine had landed “I was just really engrossed in the article I was reading,”

Jim cocked his head “What was it about?”

“I-- it….”

He blinked back at her, wide eyed and curious. 

“...something about the revolutionary war, how was your walk?” 

Barbara forced a smile and very deliberately did not look toward where the magazine had fallen. She would tell Jim, but not yet. Only once she had discovered something solid, more tangible. 

She couldn’t raise his hopes when she wasn’t even sure that her own were founded.

“Fine,” Jim took a seat at the fire across from her “Moon’s full, that was pretty cool,”

Barbara nodded and leaned back in her seat, picking up her half-full mug and willing the buzz of nervous energy in her limbs to fade. She reached for the long wooden branch to poke at the fire, only to notice the tote bag at her feet. That’s right, with all the excitement of her discovery she had almost forgotten. 

“Jim, I have a surprise for you,”

He perked up instantly “Really? What?”

“Here,” she lifted the tote and tossed it across the fire towards him. 

Jim caught it with ease and reached an arm in, pulling out a smaller plastic bag with a look of surprise “Candy corn?”

“Yep,” Barbara gave him a gentle smile “Happy Halloween kiddo,”

Jim smiled back at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes “Thanks mom,” he tore open the bag and started popping the orange triangles into his mouth while staring into the fire, expression unreadable.

They sat like that for a few minutes, the only sounds Jim’s chewing and the crackling of the fire, before Barbara couldn’t bite her tongue any more.

Normally she would leave well enough alone, but reading what she did in that magazine had set her thoughts a-buzzing like a nest of hornets.

She didn’t want to corner Jim like this, to put him on the spot, make an already stressful trip worse. But she couldn’t just stay quiet, her own conscience wouldn’t let her.

For years Barbara had  _ tried _ , tried so hard to give Jim space. Let him deal with his problems without hounding him every ten seconds. 

It wasn’t until Jim broke down crying in school that she realized just how poorly that approach had worked out. 

Jim had shouldered so much by himself, struggling in silence, until one day came the staw that broke the camel’s back. Leaving him a shattered wreck.

Of course who’s fault was that? A nasty voice whispered in her ear. Who should have been modeling healthy coping mechanisms for him? Who showed up after work every day dead tired and still pasted a smile on her face for years and pretended like everything was fine even when they both knew it that it damn well wasn’t. 

Who was it that taught Jim to bottle up his emotions until he exploded? 

More importantly, what kind of mother didn’t notice that her child was in pain?

Barbara steeled herself even though her stomach still churned with doubt. Even if it meant pushing his boundaries she wasn’t going to let Jim fall into such a bad place, not again, not if she could help it.

“How are you Jim? I mean really,” 

Jim didn’t respond at first, merely finished chewing his mouthful of candy and swallowed, but he didn’t pick up any more.

“Better,” he said after a long time.

Barbara’s gut twisted with equal parts anxiety and relief. Better wasn’t anything to dismiss, but it wasn’t the same thing as good either.

The days following Jim’s fifteenth birthday, and the realization that things might not get better than they were now, had been some of the worst of both of their lives, only comparable to the days after James’s departure and the night Jim first changed. 

And as bad as things had been for her, she knew Jim’s condition was far  _ far _ worse.

He had sunk into a deep slump and stayed there for days. Barely speaking, barely eating; not even glancing at anything, video games, vespa magazines, cooking equipment, that had brought him joy just a few days before. Jim had been in such a dark place, and Barbara was powerless to help him find his way out.

“Better how?”

Jim twisted the plastic of the bag around his finger “Me and Toby are hanging out with Mary, Darci, and Claire; you know about them, right?”

Barbara nodded.

One day in the middle of his depression, just when she’d been starting to worry that her son would never smile again, out of the blue Jim had come home and told her that he was invited to go to the county fair with Toby and some girls from his class. Unsure what to do with this development, Barbara had sent Jim off with a kiss on the forehead and $20 to pay his way, hoping for the best.

When Jim had come home that night he was smiling brighter than he had in a long time. 

Those three names had come up frequently in Jim’s gushing the night following the county fair. And for many nights after. 

“Has being friends with them...helped?”

“Oh yeah, they’re really fun,” Jim said with a grin “We hang out almost every day after school and during our off period, Mary always has the best ideas about what to do and Darci is a total daredevil, plus Steve never bothers us when we’re with them,”

_ That  _ got her attention “I’m sorry, what?”

Jim’s eyes widened, clearly having revealed more than he intended.

Barbara’s mouth straightened into a hard line “Who is this Steve and how does he ‘bother’ you?”

“A guy in my class, and nothing really,” his eyes darted around the clearing, landing on anything but her “Honestly it’s not a big deal,”

“Jim.” her voice was iron, and offered no room for negotiation.

He squirmed but remained silent. 

Barbara fixed him with a narrowed gaze and waited.

A minute and a half was all it took.

“It’s...sometimes he…” Jim stared down at the fire, still unable to look her in the eye “He’ll...push me and trip me in the hall, little stuff like that,”

Barbara could practically feel her blood pressure rising “That is unacceptable. When we get home we’re going to talk to the school about him,”

Jim visibly cringed “You don’t need to do that mom, I can handle Steve, please just don’t make a big deal about this”

Somehow her frown got even deeper. This  _ was _ a big deal. No matter the circumstances, Barbara was  _ not _ going to let Jim minimize someone else’s violent behavior.

“This isn’t up for debate. You shouldn’t have to  _ handle _ another student being violent with you,”

“It’s not that bad, telling will just make things worse,”

“Has he threatened to retaliate if you tell on him!?” 

“No! I-- it’s just…” Jim trailed off, his words hanging in the air. 

The silence as taut as a wire.

Then he sighed, sounding utterly defeated “Things at school are finally normal again, Steve might give me a hard time...but everyone else has finally stopped looking at me weird,”

Jim looked up and met her eyes “Steve’s a jerk, a huge jerk, but I can handle him, I just want…” his voice dropped into a hoarse whisper “I just want other people to at least  _ think _ I’m normal,”

Her throat was tight. It rankled, more than that, it went against every instinct Barbara had to ignore a bully, and a violent one at that. It felt wrong, hell, that was probably because it  _ was _ wrong. But could she really make things for Jim more turbulent after he’d finally regained some stability in his life?

His life that was only going to get more difficult from here on out. 

_ Or maybe it wouldn’t. _

Barbara shut her eyes and let out a deep breath “Ok, if you don’t think the situation with Steve needs addressing we can leave it be,”

Jim perked up.

“ _ However _ , if things start to escalate with him, even a little bit, you let me know right away, got it?”

Jim nodded “Got it,”

“Good,” Barbara leaned back and forced herself to take another sip of tea.

The uncomfortable subject was officially dropped, but things were still strained between them, waiting to snap under the slightest trigger.

“Steve may be a jerk,” Jim said softly “But I really am doing better,”

“Are you Jim? Are you  _ really _ ?” she knew her tone was sharper than it should be, but right now she didn’t have the mental space to worry about that. Right now Barbara was too worried and too scared and too frazzled and too tired. So goddamn tired “Because I feel like everytime you say that it’s only to make  _ me _ feel better. You never tell me when things are bad or that you’re hurting,”

“I swear I’m not downplaying things this time!”

“How do I know that? You didn’t tell me what was going on on your birthday, you didn’t tell me about being kicked out of the Mole scouts-- Christ, another student’s been harassing you at school and this is the first I’m hearing about it!”

“This-- this isn’t like that!”

“Well I don’t want the next time that I find out you’re struggling to be when one of your teachers calls me because you broke down crying again!” 

Her mouth shut with a click. She’d gone too far,  _ way _ too far. Barbara should not have said that. But now the words were out there, and she couldn’t take them back if she tried.

The stunned look on Jim’s face told her that he hadn’t been expecting her to go this far either.

Neither one of them said anything for a long time

“There’s social media,” Jim finally spoke up in a quiet voice “Mary practically forced me to make seven new accounts so I can follow her on everything,” he gave a weak smile “So even if they move away we can still stay in touch,”

“Jim…”

“And Darci’s dad’s a cop and Claire’s mom is a politician, so maybe not all of them will move away...” 

Jim straightened and raised his head towards her. The look on his face, uncertain but so  _ so _ determined, tore at her heartstrings “I really am doing better,”

Barbara got up from her seat and walked over to him, reaching out and laying a hand on his shoulder “And I’m happy for you, I’m glad that you’re doing better and I’m sorry I snapped at you like that. It was wrong of me to say what I did and I promise I won’t do that again,” 

She gave his shoulder a comforting squeeze “I’m glad things are better for you now, but if they get bad again...please don’t hide it. Talk to me, share how you feel so it doesn’t build up,” 

It was a testament to how tall he was getting that Barbara barely had to kneel to look Jim in the eye even while he was sitting “I know you think you’re protecting me when you hide your problems, but remember, we’re a team. And I can’t help you if I don’t know that something’s wrong,”

Even with the tusks she could see his lip start to quiver “We take care of each other,” Jim’s voice was thick with emotion “Right?” 

Her own eyes brimming, Barbara pulled him into a hug “Right,”

Their embrace lasted a few more seconds, long enough for both of them to sniffle their unshed tears away, before Barbara gently pulled back, Jim releasing her willingly, and went back to her seat.

She took a few more sips of tea and he munched on his candy corn while the fire cracked and popped between them, the silence much more palatable now. 

Her tea was almost gone when Jim spoke up again.

“Actually, there is something…”

“What is it?” Barbara forced herself to stay calm and not jump down his throat with a dozen questions. Jim was putting himself out there, now she had to do her part and let him speak.

Jim shifted uncomfortably in his seat “You know Claire? One of the new girls I’ve been hanging out with?”

“Yes?”

“I...like her...as...more than a friend,” even as he said those words he slumped back in his seat, like a puppet with the strings cut “But I can’t...date her or even tell her as long…” he sank even lower “As long as I’m like...this,”

A dagger to the back couldn’t have hurt her any deeper. Jim’s transformations had taken so much from him already and now he couldn’t even...

Barbara was keenly aware of the magazine on the ground behind her, blazing like a hot coal from just beyond her vision. 

In that moment she vowed that she would chase down whatever possible leads this new discovery offered her. Run to the ends of the earth, leave no stone unturned. Do whatever it takes to find a cure. Barbara would find a way for her son to live a normal life, with all that entailed.

No matter how many decades it took. 

“Thank you for telling me,”

Jim managed to crack a smile before going back to his candy corn.

Finally able to relax, they settled in to just enjoy the rest of the night and each other’s company, accompanied by the soft glow and crackles from the dying fire. The hour slips away, Barbara finishes her tea and Jim polishes off his candy corn and eats the bag to. 

Eventually Barbara stood up from her chair “I’m going to bed, be sure to take care of the fire before you go to sleep,”

Jim yawned and stretched “I think I’m gonna turn in to,”

Barbara raised an eyebrow “Aren’t you still hungry?”

“Nah,” Jim appeared to only be half listening while he spread the coals around with the stick.

She frowned, glancing at the crumbs of orange sugar on the ground. Even by his night-food standards that wasn’t a very nutritious meal “You should have more to eat than just candy,”

“It’s ok, I ate earlier,”

She looked over at their cooler full of food stores, all of it untouched “What did you eat?”

Jim fidgeted and looked away while pouring their used dishwater over the glowing ashes “I...uh...a fox,”

“A fox?”

“Yeah...I saw it on my walk...it was dead when I found it...so I figured why not,”

Her blood ran cold “Do you have any idea how it might have died?”

“Old age?”

Barbara slowly walked over and grabbed the electric lantern, now that the fire was out they needed the extra light to see each other “How long ago did you eat it?”

“About two hours ago?” Jim’s voice was small, some of her anxiety starting to leech into him.

Two hours. Which meant it was probably too late to make him vomit it out.

“Mom, what’s wrong?”

Barbara took a deep breath and willed herself to stay calm. The were in the middle of the woods miles away from any kind of civilization; panicking wouldn’t do either of them a damn bit of good right now “That fox might have died from a disease, like tularemia or bru--”

“Or rabies…” Jim finished, blue face growing pale in the lantern light.

Barbara grimaced, her thoughts exactly, she’d wanted to avoid scaring him by saying so out loud but it looked like he’d put it together himself “It’s ok, it’s only two hours back to the rental place and one to the nearest town big enough to have what we need. We can just say a fox bit you, that should get you all the shots you need. If we get up at six we can get there before ten,,”

Barbara walked over to Jim and squeezed both of his shoulders “Don’t worry,I’ve seen rabies exposure cases before, people have received their initial rabies shots almost 24 hours after they’ve been bitten and made complete recoveries. Ten am tomorrow is plenty early enough,” 

Even if she was battling her own fears Jim needed to hear those words from her right now.

She managed to smile and pat him on the cheek “You’re going to be fine,”

His expression wavered before solidifying into enforced composure, he nodded back at her.

With that they separated and set about preparing to retire for the night, despite the fresh undercurrent of panic.

Soon pajamas were on, teeth were brushed, and the lantern was out; the only light coming from the small flashlight she held. And once Jim was bundled up on his tarp and Barbara was cocooned in her tent that was extinguished too. She shut her eyes and settled into the sleeping bag, determined to get a full night’s rest.

Barbara was just starting to nod off when she heard Jim whisper from outside. 

“Are you still awake mom?”

“Yeah,” she replied with a yawn “What is it hon?”

“We’re going to tell the clinic that an animal bit me and that’s why I need the shots, right?”

“Uh huh,” 

“Then...won’t it look weird if I don’t have any bite wounds on me?”

Her eyes shot open. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the delay getting this one up, but y'all have NO idea how long I've been waiting to drop this part, and I wanted to make sure the quality was up to snuff.
> 
> And to those who are wondering, yes the fox Jim ate had rabies, but the virus was incompatible with his troll physiology so it fizzled out to nothing by the time the sun rises in the morning, but Barbara and Jim have no way of knowing this. So tough break for them.
> 
> Will there be repercussions from all of this? You'd better believe it.
> 
> Coming ideally on April 3rd, Jim loses track of time.


	6. Toby

The squeak rubber on linoleum got louder as the footsteps came closer. 

Toby didn’t move an inch, eyes locked on the gap beneath the stall door.

Coach Lawrence’s sneakers stepped into view.

The muscles in his legs were wailing in protest, cramped in position to keep him perched on top of the toilet. Toby forced himself to ignore the pain and held his breath, staying as still as he possibly could. They were close, so close, he couldn’t mess things up now.

They hadn’t come this far just to trip at the finish line.

Seconds ticked by, each one feeling like an hour, before Coach Lawrence’s shoes turned and headed out of the bathroom. Toby letting out a silent cheer of victory as the door shut behind him. He waited a few more moments, just to make sure Coach Lawrence wasn’t trying to fake them out, before dropping down to the floor and peeking out of the stall. 

“Coast is clear Jim,”

Right on queue Jim stepped out of another stall and hurried over to meet him by the door. A quick glance to make sure the halls were clear, then they made a break for it. Running through the school as silently as they could, taking care to make sure they wouldn’t be seen.

When they reached the side entrance Toby was shaking, half from excitement and half from fear. Part of him was convinced that Señor Uhl was going to be standing right outside waiting for them, two detention slips held at the ready. Their adventure over before it could even begin. Palms sweaty, he slowly pushed the door open, when he saw that the walkway was clear his heart leapt.

He and Jim ran down the sidewalk, grabbed their bikes, and started pedaling like their lives depended on it. Not even slowing down when they crossed the street and cut through the intersection. When they finally stopped, huffing and puffing in front of the diner’s parking lot, only a sliver of Arcadia Oaks High school was visible, the rest concealed by buildings.

Toby felt giddy energy bubbling up inside his chest. They had done it, for a while he didn’t think he had it in him but he had pulled through. 

Now the afternoon was theirs. 

“ _ Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh _ I can’t believe we just did that!” he hopped from foot to foot, practically jumping with exhilaration “We ditched a pep rally  _ and  _ snuck out of school we’re practically delinquents now! And no one suspects a thing! Oooh man if anyone finds out we’re going to get Saturday detention for the rest of the year!”

Jim was giggling and grinning from ear to ear, if anything he was even more buzzed about this than Toby was “Who cares, detention will be worth it!”

Toby gave Jim an admiring glance, he had always been so straight-laced since...well, ever. It really felt good to see him  _ finally _ cut loose. 

At that moment the girls rounded the corner on their bikes, racing towards their designated meeting spot right on time.

Jim waved them over as the three slid to a stop, panting as they caught their breath. 

“You guys have any trouble escaping?”

Mary leaned heavily against her handlebars, still gasping from exertion “We nearly got caught, Ms. Janeth almost found us, we had to hide in the recycling bins,”

She perked up almost instantly “But we got away, now we have the rest of the afternoon off, and you know what that means!”

Like Toby needed to be told twice “Gun Robot 7 here we come!” he cheered, playfully bumping shoulders with Jim.

Immediately Jim stiffened, a slow shudder making its way up through his body “Tobes,” he hissed through clenched teeth “...arm…”

Oh...oops.

“Sorry dude,” he scooted away, giving Jim plenty of space “Forgot about your needle arm, at least you’re done now, right?”

“Yeah, just finished the last round of shots yesterday,” Jim replied while rubbing his much punctured limb “Thank god, if I had to get jabbed one more time I think my arm would have fallen off,”

Darci snickered “It is kind of funny that the shots you had to get after are worse than when the fox actually tried to bite your foot off,”

“Yeah, hilarious,” 

Toby noticed how Jim kept rubbing his arm as the five of them walked their bikes over to the movie theatre, there was a crackdown on sidewalk laws and they didn’t need to get busted for that of all things. 

It was nuts how Jim and Dr. Lake had been going on camping trips for years without any trouble, and then all of a sudden the most crazy-town-banana-pants thing happens.

Jim was still pretty touchy about it, he’d only ever showed Toby the injury under the bandage once. A cluster of thin red lines an inch above his ankle, not nearly as gorey as Toby had been imagining. He really didn’t like talking about it though, which was cool, Toby knew when to back off. But after enough time had passed and Jim had gotten over almost being mauled, Toby was going to try and convince him to show off the scars more. 

Scars were a huge chick magnet.

Soon enough the theatre was in sight. Not wanting to miss the start of the movie, they hurried to secure their bikes and buy their tickets. Ten minutes and three giant tubs of popcorn later they were all sitting back and watching the pure epicness of  _ Gun Robot 7: Revenge of the Federation _ . 

The movie was well over two hours long, but they managed to sit through every last glorious, action packed minute of it. Except for Mary who managed a quick potty break during one of the chase scenes. 

In other words a lot better than the pep rally would have been. They should do this more often.

All too soon the credits started rolling, forcing them to gather their trash and head for the door so that broom wielding employees could do their thing.

While throwing they were all throwing their trash away, Toby happened to notice Claire looking thoughtfully at the banner advertising another movie two theatres down. 

Her pensive look broke into a wide, cheshire-like smile “What do you guys say about making this a double feature?”

Toby did a double take at her words, before shooting a discreet glance at the nearby theater employees. One behind the ticket counter trying to pretend he wasn’t reading a textbook and fooling nobody. Two at the snack bar engaged in a heated debate about the Star Wars prequels.

None of them would notice or care if five teens snuck into an extra movie. 

For the first time today Toby didn’t feel one hundred percent onboard with this. Ditching during a pep rally was one thing, but theatre hopping was another. Forget grounding, if they got caught it was game over for real. Darci’s dad might even pull strings to get them all sent to juvie.

This was stupid, crazy, if there was a single brain cell between the five of them they’d quit while they were ahead and just go to Claire’s house and play videogames. 

But that wouldn’t be nearly as fun, or as thrilling.

Mary was practically vibrating “We  _ totally _ should!”

“We’ve already cut school for half a day,” Darci said with a shrug and a smirk “What’s sneaking an extra movie?”

Toby was about to say that they could count him in when something occurred to him.

He glanced at Jim from the corner of his eye, trying to gauge his reaction without being completely obvious. 

The movie they were looking at was over two hours long, which would mean for Jim to stay and watch with them he would have to break curfew.

Toby had to bite the inside of his mouth to keep from saying anything, Jim needed to make this choice by himself, pushing him one way or another never ended well.

Jim always stuck to his mom’s rules, which was one of the things Toby admired about him. But Dr. Lake still made him follow the same rules they’d had back since elementary school. They were in  _ high school  _ now, they were teenagers for crying out loud. Trenchcoat wearing strangers weren’t going to throw them in a windowless van if they were out on the sidewalk five minutes past dark. 

And Toby was sure that if Jim would just let himself relax and forget about the rules just once, he would realize that to. Then he could spend his nights going out and having fun with Toby and their three awesome new friends instead of being cooped up inside. Sure Dr. Lake would probably be a little upset at first, but Toby was confident that she would understand eventually.

But was today the day?

He held his breath as Jim opened his mouth “I’m in to,” his smile was giddy and carefree “What about you Tobes?”

Bliss shot through him from his head to his shoes.

Hearing Jim say that made Toby feel like he was walking on air. It was all he could do to not grab Jim in a bear hug and sweep him off his feet “As if you guys even have to ask me,”

After making a couple bathroom trips as stealthily as possible, the five of them quivering with barely restrained giggles, they scurried into a second theatre. One showing a cheesy romcom that they most certainly had not bought tickets for.

The movie was nothing they hadn’t seen before in other similar films. Completely predictable with cliche miscommunications and an obligatory love triangle, but they were all still roaring with laughter. Not so much at the movie, but at the thrill of successfully having broken multiple rules in a single day and gotten away with it.

So another two hours later they were all still laughing their heads off as they walked out of the theatre.

“We, we--” Darci’s words were broken up by loud guffaws “Should ditch and do movies more often,” 

“Totally,” 

“Definitely,” 

“No argument here,”

Toby sided up to Jim, making sure to avoid his needle arm this time, and flashed him a wink. He knew Jim had it in him, that one day he would realize sticking to old, outdated, frankly babyish rules wasn’t as important as spending time with his friends, he just had to give Jim the chance to figure that out by himself.

“Glad you decided to stay later this time Jimbo,”

“What?”

“Dr. Lake probably won’t be too mad at you for breaking curfew, just make her some of your famous spinach puffs and she’ll get over it,” 

Jim stopped in his tracks and turned to look at him, confusion written all over his face “What are you talking about? It’s only three, I’ll be home in plenty of time,”

“No dude, it’s four thirty,”

Wait. Had Jim not been planning on this? Had he just...forgotten the time?

Frown deepening, Jim rooted through his pocket and pulled out his phone “It can’t be that la-”

He stopped in his tracks, jaw dropping open. Toby could actually see the color draining from his face as Jim saw that it was indeed 4:27 pm.

Just like that the cheerful mood was gone. The waves shock and panic coming off of Jim strong enough to make it crash to the ground. Quickly picking up on the sudden shift in atmosphere, girls all looked at each other uncomfortably, Claire coming up to Jim and gently laying a hand on his shoulder “Don’t worry, I’ve broken curfew a few times, your mom might be mad but it’s n--”

Without warning Jim turned and sprinted towards the entrance. They all just stood there, dumbfounded, for a few moments before speedily following him.

Outside Jim was frantically trying to unlock his bike, his hands were trembling so badly that the lock and key slipped from his grip multiple times.

“Hey, where’s the fire?” Darci’s tone was light, but her question landed awkwardly.

Toby’s could feel his face growing hot. Whether it was anger, embarrassment, or some unholy combination of both he had no idea. 

Why did Jim have to do this? Today of all freaking days. They had been having so much fun and then he had to go and ruin it.

Why couldn’t Jim just not do what his mom told him for once in his life? 

He stepped up to him, prepared to say whatever he had to to get Jim to forget his dumb curfew and actually put his friends first for once. 

At that moment Jim finally ripped his bike free and mounted it. Looking back just long enough to flash them an apologetic look. 

“Sorry but I really need to leave right now,” he said in a shaking voice.

“Jim wa-” Mary shouted at him but it was too late, Jim was already speeding away, he hadn’t even bothered to put his helmet on.

Expression flickering back and forth between fury and confusion, she grabbed her own bike and took off hot on his trail. Claire, Darci, and Toby rushing to get their own bikes and follow after them.

The four of them pedaled as fast as they could after Jim. Darci nearly got close enough to touch him a few times, but they couldn’t keep pace with the almost manic way Jim was pedaling. In ten minutes, a time frame Toby never before thought possible, they pulled into their cul-de-sac. 

Jim didn’t even slow down, dismounting and discarding his bike on the lawn without missing a beat, and then running for his front door at a breakneck pace.

Toby braked hard on the sidewalk “Hold on Jim, let’s ju--”

Jim vanished as the front door slammed shut with a resounding thud. Toby’s entire face was burning, he was very  _ very  _ aware of the girls huddling up on the sidewalk and exchanging hushed whispers.

This was bad, this was bad, this was so freaking bad.

Toby didn’t care if he had to drag him, he was getting Jim out here.

Blood pumping hot and furious, Toby jogged up and pounded on the door.

No reply. 

He was hyper aware of the girls eyes on him now “C’mon Jim open up,” he forced his tone to be light and friendly “You can’t just leave us hanging like this,”

Still nothing.

Clenching his fist, Toby tried again.

On the fifth knocking attempt the doorknob started to turn. Toby opened his mouth to unload on Jim about his uncool and uncalled for attitude, but to his surprise it was Dr. Lake that answered the door instead. 

“What is it Toby?”

He stretched his fake smile even wider, if there was ever a time to play it cool it was now “Hey there Dr. L, I know Jim has a curfew to stick to...but would it be ok if he just came out so we could say goodbye for the night?”

“Jim is in for the night, you guys can talk tomorrow,”

“Oh,” Toby thought quickly “How about I just pop in really quick, just for a minute,”

He moved to step around her and go talk to Jim himself, but before he could set foot inside her arm shot out and grabbed the door frame. 

Her expression had shifted from calm to annoyed as she stood firmly in the doorway, hand fixed firmly to the wooden frame beside her. 

Barring him entry.

“I’m sorry Toby but Jim can’t talk right now,”

Unwilling to move but able to go forward, Toby stayed where he was, feet rooted to the ground.

That was when Claire came hurrying up from behind him, Mary and Darci right on her heels “Please don’t be mad, Jim wasn’t trying to break curfew, we all lost track of time,” 

“That isn’t--” Dr. Lake let out a deep sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. 

“I’m not mad,” she said tonelessly “But Jim still can’t come to the door,”

Mary’s eyes narrowed, mouth twisting into an indignant frown “Why not?”

“He...he needs to get started on his homework,”

“We won’t take long,” Darci piped up “And besides, the only thing due tomorrow is the biology worksheet, and I know Jim’s finished it already,”

Suddenly a strange sound came from deeper in the house behind Dr. Lake, it almost sounded like...fabric ripping?

Instinctively all four of them shifted around to get a look at the source of the noise. Dr. Lake grabbed the door handle and started to ease it shut while still blocking them.

“I-- I’m sorry but the answer is still no,”

Toby felt sick. Could today get any worse? Why did Dr. Lake have to do it like this. He already knew Mary was going to give them hell about this, not to mention what Claire and Darci would think “But Dr. Lake--”

“Goodnight,” with that she shut the door firmly in their faces

They all stood there for a few seconds of awkward silence before starting to shuffle toward their bikes.

“What does she mean ‘Goodnight’?” Mary grumbled “It’s still light out...” 

Toby moved to follow them, paused, and then turned back and stepped toward the door. Jim always had lots of weird rules to follow, but this was the first time he’d broken one of them and gotten caught.

But Dr. Lake hadn’t been mad, the way she had acted was...weird. 

On impulse he tried the knob. 

Deadbolted. 

His entire body ignited in a hot flush of embarrassment. They had just missed curfew by half an hour and Dr. Lake was locking them out like they were just some random punks?

Any sense of shame gone now, Toby stepped right up and pressed his ear against the wood.

At first he couldn’t hear anything, then he started to pick up the whispers. Toby pressed closer, most of it was too quiet to make out, but some of it wasn’t.

“What were you thinking?” Dr. Lake’s voice “I must have called you over a dozen times!”

The volume died down abruptly. Toby strained to hear more, the silence ticking on.

Then her voice shot up in a sharp peak, nearly forcing him to stagger back. 

“Do you have any idea how close you were cutting it!”

After that it got really quiet.

For a while he thought that was the end of it, then Dr. Lake spoke up again, this time so soft he could barely hear her “Oh sweetie I’m sorry…stay here, I’ll get the scissors,”

Toby kept listening but things stayed quiet. Except for the hundreds of questions swirling in his skull.

He raised a fist, ready to rap it against the wood. To knock on the door one more time today.

His hand stayed like that, raised and ready for action, for five seconds, ten, twenty, thirty.

Then at forty he deflated, hand falling softly and soundlessly against the wood. Hanging his head, Toby turned and walked away from the house, back towards the sidewalk where his bike and the girls were waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to the sources I've looked up, sunset in California in late November happens around 4:40pm. Jim's set curfew was 4:00pm and by the time he got out of the movie it was T-minus fifteen minutes until he changed. With a ten minute bike ride home he literally made it by less than five minutes until transformation time.
> 
> I don't know what experiences other people had, but at my high school pep rallys happened during the last few periods of the day and after they ended students were release for the day. Where I went it was really common for students to just ditch pep rallys and essentially get a half day off of school. Teachers would stop you from leaving once they began herding students towards the gym, but no one who successfully ditched was ever punished. I even had one teacher the period right before a pep rally was scheduled to start, discreetly release us ten minutes early so we could get off the school grounds before they started rounding up all the students. I don't know if my school was unique in this way, but it was a huge part of the student culture while I was there.
> 
> Tentative update date May 1st, when Claire gets some surprising news.


	7. Claire

Claire’s eyelids fluttered open. Rapidly blinking to bring the dark room into focus. Which was definitely way too dark for it to be time to get up.

She rolled over and glanced towards her alarm clock, trying to focus on the glowing, green numbers with still bleary eyes.

3:47am

Claire groaned and squeezed her eyes shut, pressing her cheek deeper into her pillow in an attempt to go back to sleep. Which given her track record, probably wasn’t going to happen.

Why had she even woken up in the first place? There were no loud sounds or bright lights. She wasn’t in any discomfort and didn’t have to go to the bathroom. So why was--

Muffled noises came from down the hall. 

She froze underneath the covers, not even daring to breathe. All thoughts of going back to sleep vanishing as her heartbeat skyrocketed.

Had she really just heard that, not just imagined it? That was probably it, Claire probably just heard the house settling and her sleepy brain ran with it. There was no way it could be something...else. 

Just then the noises came again, removing any possibility of them being imagined. Not moving an inch from where she was, Claire tried to discern exactly what exactly the strange noises were. They didn’t sound like a home invader, but they didn’t sound like one of her parents just getting a glass of water either.

After debating with herself for a solid minute, Claire peeled the sheets away and sat up. Slinking out of bed, she cautiously crept out of her room and down the hall, willing the frantic thrumming of her heart to slow.

If it turned out to be one of her parents that would be that, but if it wasn’t she would run back to her room, lock the door, and call the cops.

Easy peasy….in theory.

By now she could hear well enough to tell that the noises were coming from the bathroom, and as Claire tiptoed closer the sounds got clearer. Shuffles and clanks, someone hacking and gasping, someone she knew.

Her mom.

Claire practically melted with relief at once she realized that the sound wasn’t some psychotic burglar. Almost immediately the feeling was replaced with stomach curdling dread as the horrible sounding coughs continued. 

She knocked gently on the bathroom door “Mom?”

No reply, the moans and strangled gasps continued uninterrupted.

Insides knotted with anxiety, Claire eased open the door to reveal her mom slumped on the bathroom floor in front of the toilet, clinging to the porcelain bowl like a life preserver. She turned in response to the door opening, eyes weary and unfocused, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand “wuh, Claire? What are--” 

Her cheeks bulged and she hastily turned back towards the toilet, groaning miserably as her stomach forcefully emptied its contents again.

Claire rushed to her mother’s side “What’s wrong, are you sick? Should I get Dad?”

“I--” she coughed, a horrible hacking sound “I’m fine, your father went out to get me some medicine, go back to bed,”

Claire made no attempt to move, she stayed firmly in place kneeling on the floor and holding Ophelia’s hair as she continued to vomit. 

The sharp terror from a minute ago of their home potentially being intruded upon by a dangerous outsider had been replaced by a softer, more insidious fear.

If her mom was fine why was she puking her guts out at three in the morning? That wasn’t something people who were ‘fine’ did. So yeah, fat chance of Claire going back to bed.

Despite Ophelia’s continued weak objections. Claire stayed by her side until she was finished heaving. When Ophelia once again insisted that she was alright and that Claire should go back to sleep she responded by gently leading her downstairs to the couch and covering her with a blanket.

Ophelia had given up protesting by then, eyes fluttering shut as she clutched her stomach and leaned back against the couch cushion.

Claire twisted the cloth of her pajama top with her hands, fabric balled between trembling fingers. Why wasn’t her mom giving her a harder time about this? Why was she lying back and not fighting her at all? Where was the tough-as-nails politician that ruled the household schedule with an iron fist?

Just how sick was her mom?

Seeing her mom slumped back against the couch, stray locks of hair pasted to her sweaty, pale skin; Claire felt smaller than she had in a long time.

Claire shook her head and shoved her nagging fears down as far as she could. This was no time to be freezing up, now was the time to _ do _ something. She could panic later, her mom was sick and needed help _ now _. 

Running into the kitchen, Claire started up the water, grabbed a mug, and popped in a lemon teabag. In less than five minutes she had a steaming cup of lemon tea.

Hurrying over to Ophelia, Claire set the mug down in front of her “I made tea do you want some?”

Ophelia blinked sluggishly “No...no thank you,” she said in a soft voice.

Claire bit her lip, her mom had just thrown up a lot and probably needed fluids, but she had said no and she shouldn’t undercut that.

In the end Claire left the tea where it was just in case her mom changed her mind and scurried back to the kitchen. A bundle of nervous energy with nowhere to go, she fluttered around the pantry until she landed on a box of saltines and jogged back to the couch.

“Maybe try chewing on some of these, that should help with your stomach,”

Apparently this had been the wrong thing to say.

The corners of Ophelia’s mouth turned down into an irritated frown, lifting her head just enough to deliver a stern glare “Claire I’m _ fine _, I just need to rest, I don’t need you fussing over me,” 

Claire slowly lowered the box of saltines, cheeks burning. 

Of course. Why hadn’t she realized sooner? Her mom had been puking her guts out less than five minutes ago, of course she didn’t feel like eating anything. Of course she was feeling sick and miserable, of course she didn’t want Claire buzzing around and throwing tea and crackers at her. 

Flushed with shame, Claire tucked the saltines under her arm, picked up the tea, and slunk back into the kitchen. 

One thing was clear, her mom needed peace and quiet, hopefully Claire could do _ that _ right at least.

She took a seat at the kitchen table and ended up sipping the lemon tea herself. Occasionally throwing worried glances towards where her mom was resting. 

The urge to fix this, to do something to help, to make things better, was almost overwhelming. Her mom was sick, really sick, and Claire was just sitting around having tea. But what the hell did she know about what her mom needed? Maybe lemon tea and saltines would make whatever she had worse. Maybe the best thing to do would be to stay out of the way until her dad came back with actual medicine.

Her eyes started to burn despite how much she was trying to fight it.

Maybe Claire didn’t know the first thing about helping sick people. But she couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

Not when it was her mom.

After nearly ten minutes of going back and forth Claire ended up making another cup of tea, ginger this time, which she knew was one of her mom’s favorites. 

She timidly stepped back into the living room, hands clasped tightly around the fresh cup of tea. Just go up and very calmly and quietly offer the tea again. And if her mom said no she would leave right away and not disrupt her resting.

“I made some ginger tea,” Claire said gently while walking up to the couch “You like ginger right?”

Ophelia blinked and leaned forward, hands outstretched to accept the mug, even those small movements appeared to take all the effort she had “Thank you mija, that sounds good,”

Elation shot through her as she handed over the warm ceramic mug. A massive weight was lifted off her shoulders as Claire _ finally _felt like she was doing something to help. 

She was about to retreat to the kitchen so not to hover, when her mom spoke up again. 

“Claire, if you don’t mind, could you sit up with me?” Ophelia flashed her a weak smile “Some company sounds good right now,”

A hot, fluttery feeling swept through her body, something between relief and joy “Of course Mom,”

Claire sat back in the easy chair. She stayed quiet to keep from stressing her mom out any more, but kept her eyes locked on her. Carefully watching for any further signs of illness while her mom took tiny sips of tea. 

Twenty minutes later and half an hour after Claire had woken up her dad came home.

“Sorry I took so long,” he shut and locked the door with one hand while carrying a plastic grocery bag in the other “The CVS was closed so I had to drive all the way to-- Claire? What are you doing up?”

Claire shot up out of her seat, eyes locked on the bag “You have medicine, right? Will it be enough? Do we need to go to the hospital?”

“Slow down Claire,” Javier walked over to the couch and sat down beside his wife, handing her the bag “We’re not going to the hospital, this is just to help with your mother’s nausea,”

“Buh...but, why are you nauseous? You were really sick, why aren’t we going to the hospital!?”

Ophelia and Javier shared a conspiratorial look.

She knew that look. 

There was something they knew that she didn’t.

“What’s going on, please, tell me!” her voice was practically a whine by now but she didn’t care, her mom was sick and Claire needed to know how bad it was.

They were both silent for a few seconds. Then Ophelia gingerly set the bag and mug off to the side before clearing her throat “Claire, we’re pretty sure that this is...morning sickness,”

Claire’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Morning sickness? But that’s what people had when they were--

Oh.

_ Oh. _

She flopped back into her seat, brain too busy shifting gears to control her body right now. Ophelia was still talking but Claire was only half listening. 

It was a massive relief to hear that her mom wasn’t dying from some horrible stomach disease, but the fact that she had been throwing up because…

That was a lot to wrap her head around, to say the least.

“...now it’s still pretty early and there’s a lot we don’t know for sure, so please don’t go around telling everyone, ok?”

Enough of her brain was still functioning that Claire managed to nod in response. 

“We expect the morning sickness to go away soon, but I have an OBGyn appointment next Tuesday. If there are any issues we’ll catch them,” Ophelia leaned forward and flashed Claire a rare, relaxed smile “I’m ok mija,”

Somehow Claire found herself smiling back.

* * *

Claire waved goodbye as her father’s SUV pulled away from the school.

It felt strange that even when her day started with waking up to the sound of her mom projectile vomiting and learning she wasn’t going to be an only child for much longer it still brought her to the front of the school, ready for another day of lectures and studying. Same as always.

Despite everything calming down no one had gone back to sleep. They’d all stayed up and talked, mostly about the new little brother or sister she would be getting in eight months. Her dad had taken advantage of being up early to cook them all an extra large breakfast.

Even if her mom had only been able to eat a few spoonfuls of the oatmeal.

Quite frankly Claire was still figuring out how she felt about getting a sibling. Mainly she was just glad that her mom was ok. 

Car vanishing around the corner, Claire turned and headed into the school building. 

Her mom had always been pretty strict, and her dad was right up there with her. Claire would be the first to admit that she wished they would lighten up every once and awhile. But seeing her mom so sick that she’d barely been able to stand was...scary. 

A hot flicker of guilt briefly flared in her chest as she reached her locker and started spinning in the combination. Her parents weren’t perfect by any means, in fact Claire had a whole mental list of things she wished they’d do differently. But she knew from the bottom of her heart that they loved her, and if push came to shove, either one of them would take a bullet for her.

Not everyone was lucky enough to have parents like that.

Out of the corner of her eye Claire spotted Jim and Toby at their lockers, causing her chest to tighten with an entirely different emotion.

Once in middle school Claire had pulled a chair out from under another girl, she’d gotten written up and the teacher had called her parents. She very clearly remembered sitting in the principal’s office, absolutely petrified of what punishment her parents would dish out when they got there. 

But whatever that punishment was, being grounded for two weeks as it turned out, she’d been scared of_ it _, not of her parents.

Lips pursed, Claire watched Jim and Toby head off to their first class.

Yesterday, after the movies, Jim hadn’t just been acting nervous about being punished or grounded.

He had been scared.

Scared for real.

Claire liked Jim. She liked being his friend and for a long time she wanted to be more than that. But every time she came close to taking that step, every time she thought about asking him out or confessing her feelings, she stopped. Some nameless instinct holding her back.

So she stayed quiet, and waited.

For months Claire had struggled with her feelings, holding back and biting her tongue without ever being able to put her finger on the reason why.

But now she knew.

Claire made her way over to where Mary and Darci were waiting in their usual rendezvous spot. 

“Hey guys…”

Both of them looked towards her, but it was Darci who responded. 

“Morning Claire,” she paused, noticing the troubled expression on her friend’s face “Hey, is something going on?”

Claire took a deep breath, maybe she was just being paranoid, reading too much into things. But she had to ask “You remember yesterday, after the movies?”

Darci winced while Mary just snorted “Yeah, that’s pretty hard to forget,” 

“The way Jim freaked out and the way his mom was acting…” Claire bit her lip, hesitating for a moment before taking the leap “That wasn’t…I don’t think everything’s ok with them, do you guys think so to?”

As soon as the words left her mouth Mary’s expression turned hard as stone “You’re damn right I do, something’s definitely going on,”

Darci’s wince deepened, based on her expression she already knew where this was leading to and she didn’t like it “Yeah, I think he was worried about a lot more than breaking curfew,”

“So what should we do?”

Things were silent for a few moments before Mary spoke up, voice flinty “We all need to have a _ talk _,”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ophelia might have seemed snippier than usual during parts of this chapter, especially considering Claire was scared and only trying to help, but that's because Ophelia was incredibly sick, miserable, and grouchy. As someone who's had food poisoning on no fewer than three occasions, sometimes the only thing that even remotely appeals to me after marathon vomiting is sitting quietly in the dark and slowly letting my intestines untangle themselves. And during that time I'm not in the mood for anyone's company, well intentioned or not. 
> 
> To fill in the blanks Ophelia instantly regretted snapping at Claire, something to the tune of 'You're the adult, it doesn't matter how sick you are, how dare you lose control of yourself and act that way to your child when she's only trying to help you'. Which is why she was much more receptive the next time Claire came around, she didn't really want the tea or for someone to sit up with her, she wanted to reassure Claire that her presence and efforts were appreciated.
> 
> And now we've officially passed the point where the girls can just explain things away, it's only going to snowball from here. The next chapter's going to be the calm before the storm, but in the one after that...let's just say the point of no return is crossed.
> 
> Target update date May 22: The girls confront Toby and while Jim's back isn't to the wall yet, it's inches away and getting closer.


	8. Toby and Jim

Toby yanked the door open and ran into the locker room. 

Please be there, please be there, please be there.

He made a beeline for the laundry bin and practically dived in head first, frantically rooting through the used towels and uniforms. Two thirds of the way in his fingers closed around the object he was looking for. He went limp with relief before quickly realizing that was a bad idea when he was upside down in a laundry bin; which smelled like low tide on the world’s nastiest beach now that he noticed, and squirmed out. Talk about a lucky break. Toby had been _ that _ close to losing his wallet over thanksgiving.

Familiar leather rectangle now tucked safely in his back pocket, Toby started to leave when he heard something from the shower area. Curious, he took a few steps closer. 

Someone was talking, based on the pauses between their words they were probably on their phone, but it wasn’t just any someone; it was Steve “Bane of Toby’s entire existence,” Palchuk. 

Toby paused, one foot still frozen in mid-step. Normally he’d be running toward the other side of school right now, but something in Steve’s voice sounded...off.

Maybe he was risking his life and the integrity of his face by hanging around, but the potential for dirt on Steve was just too good to pass up. Squashing down his survival instincts, Toby crept closer, pressing his back against the wall and sliding up to the shower area until he could hear Steve’s voice crystal clear.

“I-- I know you’re busy, with work and important stuff-- but these are the semi finals,” his voice cracked “This is one of the biggest basketball games of the season…”

Toby held his breath and stayed as still as he could. That wasn’t puberty cracking in Steve’s voice, it was _ emotional _ cracking. Steve was upset-- no, more than that, it sounded like Steve was two seconds away from bursting into tears.

“Please Dad,” Steve’s voice was quivering so much he was practically whimpering now “I...I really want you to see me play,”

His voice died down, probably because his dad was saying something on the other end of the phone.

Things were silent for the longest time. Then Toby heard the click of a button and the soft rustling fabric as Steve hung up and slid the phone back into his pocket without saying a word. 

Just a sniffle.

Toby couldn’t help but wince sympathetically. Everyone already knew about the divorce, Steve had straight up announced it to the entire class back in eighth grade, but this was something new. And it was no wonder he kept it to himself. Steve might have been his least favorite person on the planet and a world class asshole, but even he didn’t deserve to get jerked around by a deadbeat dad.

Nobody deserved that. 

He shook his head, he could feel bad for Steve later, now he needed to get out of here before Steve saw him and turned him into literal mincemeat.

Toby turned to walk away, only to trip on a mop propped up against the lockers. He looked on in horror as the mop seemed to fall in slow motion, handle landing on the tile floor with a deafening clatter. 

“_ Who’s there! _” Steve roared from around the corner.

Oh _ fuck _.

Toby could actually feel his heart shoot straight up into his throat.

No time to run, had to think of something quick.

Blood rushing in his ears, Toby quickly darted around and grabbed the mop with shaking hands, dragging it several feet closer to the door. He gently set it back down on the floor and shot back upright just as a furious looking Steve rounded the corner. 

He forced himself to act casual despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins “Hey Steve, what--”

Steve charged and grabbed the front of his shirt, slamming him up against the brick wall “_What did you hear!_”

A trickle of sweat ran down the back of his neck “Hear-- what? I didn’t hear anything, I just walked in when you--”

The grip on his sweater vest tightened, Steve’s snarling face was inches away from his own “Don’t play dumb with me _ Dumb_zalski,”

Toby held his breath, shoulders pressing into the gritty brick wall. No way to run. And if Steve even suspected he’d overheard he was dead. Like legit dead, as in Steve was going to kill him and throw his body in the laundry bin. The only thing to do was continue to pretend he’d just walked in. But knowing Steve he wasn’t just going to let him off the hook that easy.

All of a sudden it came to him. The perfect out.

Toby snorted and rolled his eyes, doing his best to come off as annoyed rather than nervous “Oh my god it’s the twenty first century Steve, if you and Hank want to make out just do it under the bleachers with everyone else,”

Just like magic the furious look on Steve’s face melted into a brief expression of relief, before he quickly adjusted it into a look of annoyed apathy. And when his grip on Toby’s sweater vest loosened and he knew he was in the clear. 

Toby knew Steve, and he knew that if he accused Steve of swapping spit with another guy, he wouldn’t suspect Toby had overheard his real secret. Steve didn’t believe in pulling punches, and if the roles had been reversed Steve would have thrown Toby’s deepest, darkest secrets back at him without hesitation.

Bottom line, Steve would much rather have people question whether or not he was gay than have anyone learn that he was crying in the locker room because his daddy couldn’t come to his game.

So he could tell Steve was more grateful than angry.

But not enough to stop him from punching Toby in the face.

His head snapped to the side. Toby dropped to the ground with a grunt as sharp pain radiated through his jaw.

“Stay out of my way _ Tubby _! You and that crybaby Lake!” with that Steve turned and left, leaving Toby to pick himself off the locker room floor.

Wincing, he staggered to the door and began making his way to the library.

He prodded the bruised area with his tongue, trying to survey the damage.

His heart plummeted when he felt loose bits of metal, mumbling several words that would’ve had Nana make him put money in the swear jar.

Toby liked to consider himself a reasonably forgiving person, if it had just been bruises he would have probably kept Steve’s secret to himself. But mess with the braces and the gloves came off.

Dr. Muelas might be his mortal nemesis, but even he never charged for repairs when his braces got damaged. The issue was time. Every little error took that much longer to correct and get back on track. And judging by the amount of metal floating around in his mouth right now, this was going to take weeks to fix if he was lucky.

Months more likely.

So yeah, he was definitely telling people about Steve’s daddy issues.

Toby was still grumbling to himself when he made his way into the library and found the table their group had decided to set up shop at. Classes had ended for the day, but their pre finals cramming session was just getting started.

Darci was the first one to notice him “Hey Toby we-- Why are you holding your face like that?”

“Now _ that _ is an interesting story,” Toby slid into his seat and pried his hand off his jaw with a wince “You guys are never going to believe what I just…”

He trailed off, noticing for the first time that they were down one person.

“Hey, where’s Jim?”

No one rushed to speak up. The girls all glanced at each other and shared a look in a way that made Toby a little uncomfortable.

It was Claire who ended up answering “We asked him to pick up smoothies from across the street,”

“Oh...you got a smoothie craving?”

“Not exactly,” Mary said, folding her arms across her chest, shoulders squared and head held high “Mainly we wanted to be able to talk to you alone for a bit,”

Right away Toby knew something was up. He recognized that look, that was business-Mary, and business-Mary only came out when something serious was going down “You what?”

Claire let out a deep breath and laid both hands palms down on the table “We need to talk, about yesterday,”

Toby grimaced.

Oh. _ That _.

“Yeah, sorry, Dr. L has always been pretty strict about rules,”

“Uh, that wasn’t strict,” Mary said, voice dripping with contempt “That was full on psycho,”

Claire quickly reached out and grabbed Mary’s shoulder “Not helping,” she hissed. 

Toby felt a pang of defensiveness “Hey, Dr. Lake might be a bit...overprotective, but she’s cool,”

Darci cleared her throat, causing everyone to turn in her direction “Toby, I’ve seen strict, I’ve seen protective, _ my dad _ could probably write a book about being strict and overprotective. But the way Dr. Lake acted yesterday was pretty unusual,”

“She...was...probably just tired from work,”

Mary opened her mouth but was held off from saying anything by Claire holding up a hand “Let’s start from the beginning,” Claire shifted her chair so she was now directly facing Toby “You’ve known Jim since you guys were five, right?”

“Yeah,”

“Has he had the same rules and curfew that entire time?”

“No,”

“So what was different about his curfew when he was five compared to now?” Darci asked.

“Well...you see...it’s more like--”

“Either his curfew changed or it didn’t,” Mary cut him off “Which is it?”

Toby’s face grew hot “Ok, the times he had to be home at never changed, but he got to stay up later and talk on the phone more as we got older, once we even pulled an all nighter in Minecraft back in middle school,”

None of them responded to that, but in a way that was even worse.

Shifting nervously in her seat, Claire continued the conversation “Were there ever any exceptions to Jim’s curfew? Like birthdays or sleepovers?”

“Uh....”

Mary raised a single eyebrow “Toby, have you and Jim _ ever _ spent the night at each other’s houses?”

Bile rose in the back of his throat “No,”

All three of the girls stared at him open mouthed.

“You guys _ literally _ live right across the street from each other,” Darci said incredulously.

Toby forced out a chuckle, trying to dispel some of the tension “Dr. Lake thinks sleepovers aren’t healthy. Not sure if I believe it but hey, she’s the doctor,”

None of the girls were smiling.

He fought the urge to fidget under their scrutiny. Why did he bring that up? How Dr. Lake did things wasn’t anyone else’s business. Now they were going to think she was some kind of weirdo.

Claire leaned over and laid her hand over his elbow “Toby, I know this is how it’s been for years, but it’s not normal to have a curfew that early, or to be that scared for breaking it,”

“Jim was just nervous because, because…” Toby fumbled for the right words “Jim probably just freaked out because he lost track of time and...panicked,”

His painfully clumsy attempt to reassure the girls failed spectacularly. With every word he said their frowns deepened and the three of them kept flashing suspicious glances back and forth.

And when Jim walked in on them like this it would _ not _ be pretty.

He gripped the edge of the table with sweaty palms. Why did Mary, Darci, and Claire have to make such a big deal about this? Yesterday had been bad, but it was just a curfew slip up, that’s all. And sure Dr. Lake’s curfew and rules might be a little out there, but there wasn’t anything _ wrong _ with them.

_ stay here I’ll get the scissors _

Right?

* * *

Jim carefully balanced the bag while pushing open the side door of the school. A brief glance inside revealed all smoothies were present and intact. He hurried up the stairs to the library, mom had agreed to pick him up today, which meant he could stay right up until the last minute, but he still didn’t want to miss a second.

Nudging open the library doors with an elbow, he spotted the table they were all sitting at. Jim waited until he was closer before smiling and holding up the bag in greeting “Hey guys, I got the smoothies,”

They all turned at the sound of his voice and immediately he knew something was wrong. Darci and Claire kept exchanging nervous glances, Mary looked like she had bitten into a lemon, and Toby looked like he was about to be sick.

Uneasy, he pulled up a chair and took a seat, setting the bag on the table in front of him “Is everything ok?”

“We need to talk,” Mary said bluntly.

“Oh...kay?”

Her eyes narrowed “About yesterday,”

Jim did his best not to flinch.

“Sorry I had to bail like that. I’ve set an alarm on my phone so it won’t happen again,”

Jim hadn’t really expected that answer to satisfy them, but part of him was really hoping it would. No such luck.

Darci folded her arms “The issue isn’t that you left early, it’s about how you did it,”

He let out a nervous chuckle “What...do you mean?”

“Jim,,” Claire spoke up “When you ran out of there yesterday, you seemed scared. Really _ really _ scared. And your mom was acting pretty strange too,”

A lump formed in his throat “Mom...worries,”

“Worries enough to never let you have sleepovers?” Mary said flatly.

Jim very deliberately did not look over toward Toby, even though his friend was squirming in his seat, and bit back the urge to snap at them that how he and his mom did things was none of their business. 

“Look, that’s a separate thing, me not doing sleepovers has nothing to do with my curfew, and yeah ok, I overreacted a bit, but that’s it,” Jim stopped himself before he could ramble on any more, his voice had already started to rise in volume and pitch. If he started getting worked up it would make them even more suspicious.

For a few seconds no one said anything, then Darci broke the silence “Jim, we’re your friends, you can trust us. If you’re having a hard time or if you and your mom are struggling with something, you can tell us,” she gave him a soft smile “Whatever’s going on, we’re here for you,”

Now all eyes were on him, waiting for his response.

Jim had to hide his hands under the table to hide how badly they were shaking. 

We’re here for you. 

Despite the strained, uncomfortable atmosphere Jim had the hysterical urge to laugh.

He didn’t doubt that Darci spoke for everyone there when she said that, but Jim couldn’t let himself believe it. What happened to him wasn’t like anything they were thinking of. This wasn’t a ‘normal’ family problem like someone getting divorced or sick or moving away. The truth of Jim’s life was so far outside the realm of possibility for Toby, Claire, Darci, and Mary that they couldn’t even comprehend it. 

No one could.

The familiar prickle of anxiety twisted in Jim’s stomach as he tried to think of the magic words that would make them let this go.

How worried they were or how much they cared didn’t matter. If they found out what he turned into every night it would all go out the window. 

The girls would all be horrified, best case they’d run away screaming, worst case they’d call the feds on him. And Toby…

His throat tightened. Jim couldn’t even imagine how betrayed Toby would feel after discovering his best friend _ lied _ to him for over a decade.

But that wasn’t going to happen.

He took a deep breath and counted to get his breathing under control. 

There was no reason to start panicking and lose his head like he did yesterday. The girls just thought his mom was going overboard with protectiveness. Not the first people to think that and probably wouldn’t be the last. 

Jim could work with this, he’d been selling that story for years, he could do it again right now. Not lying exactly, just giving them pieces of the truth that fell in line with the idea they already had. 

“Everything’s ok at home,” he started haltingly “It’s just that...with only the two of us….things can get hard sometimes,”

They all stayed silent and watched him expectantly, so Jim continued “Mom only wants me home so early so she can know I’m safe. Yesterday she didn’t know where I was and I wasn’t answering my phone so she got...scared,”

That was the whole truth at least, last night his mom had been the most terrified he’d ever seen her in his entire life.

“Sure it’s not fun sticking to all the rules she has, but if being home at the hours she wants makes things just a little bit easier on her, I’m ok with that,”

He trailed off and everyone at the table shared an uncertain look.

“If you just want to help your mom out why did you have such a major freakout when you realized you were late?” Mary said in a clipped tone “That seems more like a ‘Call your mom and let her know what happened’ situation than a ‘Ditch us all and run back home’ one?”

Jim let out a sheepish laugh “I’m really sorry I bailed the way I did, I’ve never been out that late past curfew before so when I realized the time I kind of...flipped out, but I promise I won’t ditch you like that again,”

He allowed himself to let out a tiny sigh of relief a little when he saw the girls starting to relax from their tense postures, Toby looked so limp with relief that he was practically sliding out of his chair. Jim was almost in the clear, just had to keep it up and smooth over any lingering doubts. 

“Everything’s really going ok with you?” Claire asked.

“Yep,” Jim said with a nod “I’m doing just fine,”

“Good,” Darci beamed at him “That’s all we wanted to know,”

Toby grabbed the edge of the table and hauled himself into an upright position “So…” he drummed the tabletop with his fingers “Should we get this study session started?”

“Sounds good to me,” Jim said while pulling his textbooks out of his bag, relieved at the change of subject.

Mary tugged a stack of loose papers out of the tower of books and notes sitting on the table in front of her “Let’s start with history first, I just know that Mr. Strickler’s going to make the final brutal,”

The last of the tension fell out of Jim’s shoulders as they all reached for their smoothies and immersed themselves in notes.

Yesterday had been a close call, probably the closest he’d ever had, but he had bounced back from it just fine. Jim gave himself a mental pat on the back for diffusing the fallout so well. Keeping his cool had paid off just like he knew it would. 

His secret was safe and no one was the wiser.

Sure he would have to be extra careful from now on with planning, and hanging out, and making sure he got home on time; but he could do it.

Jim had everything under control. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jim you are so not in control of this situation that it isn't even funny.
> 
> The big confrontation might have seemed anticlimactic, but it's a pretty big cognitive leap from finding a situation odd to determining that something is very wrong with a situation. Especially since Jim insisted up and down that everything is fine and Toby's backing him up on that. The girls' danger meters were tipped off, but they still have plenty of doubts "Maybe this is just the way some families do it," "Maybe it isn't as bad as it looks," "Jim says everything's ok and he's never given us a reason to doubt him,". Which is why Jim was able to convince them to let it go.
> 
> But the thing is; Mary, Claire, and Darci aren't going to forget ANY of this. Even though they aren't actively buzzing anymore their danger meters still went off and that will always be in the back of their minds. And in the next chapter the girls witness something concrete that pushes them past the point of no return. They are given reason to be deeply concerned and there is nothing Jim can do or say to convince them otherwise. They don't learn about his nightly transformations, but they see a damning piece of evidence that was left behind by them.
> 
> I just started a new job so I have absolutely no idea what my free time is going to be like for the next month. Chances are I should be able to get the next chapter up before June 30th, but beyond that I really can't say.
> 
> And thank you to everyone reading, kudosing, and commenting. I'm glad so many people are enjoying the story so far and it brightens my day just to see it, y'all are the best <3


	9. Darci

Darci shifted the bag onto her hip, leaving her hand free to knock on the door.

“It’s open,” Claire’s voice called from inside.

She quickly opened the door so she could better grip the bag, and headed into the house. Everyone else was already there, Jim and Mary were messing around in the kitchen while Toby fiddled with a pile of cards. Claire waved her over from her seat on the couch. 

“I brought the guac, you have the chips?”

Darci held up the tote bag “Right here,”

Claire patted the spot next to her “We’re almost ready, Toby just needs to finish shuffling,”

Toby flashed them a thumbs up without taking his eyes away from the cards flying through his fingers.

“So as soon as our chefs finish we’ll be ready to start,” she gestured towards the kitchen.

“It would go a lot faster if  _ someone _ ,” Jim’s voice wafted out of the kitchen “Would hurry up with the fancy apple juice,”

“Hey, I don’t tell you how to make those little meat pies, you don’t tell me how to do my mocktails,”

“They’re called pasties and more effort goes into them than you’ll ever know,”

“I’m sorry, do you want to play our new years cards against humanity tournament  _ without _ mocktails? Because if you keep it up that’s what’s going to happen,”

Claire made a face and Darci had to stifle a giggle. She didn’t quite succeed and it came out as a snort.

Fortunately the bickering didn’t last and soon Jim and Mary came into the living room with their respective refreshments.

“We’re good to camp out here all day,” Jim said while carefully setting down his tray “But remember to try and be quiet, Mom just got off a graveyard shift and she’s trying to sleep,”

Darci nodded at this, normally they prefered to hang out at Claire’s house where they had a lot more space and didn’t have to worry about disturbing anyone, but since her parents were having a bunch of people over to work on the new nursery they’d been forced to come up with alternate plans.

Toby grabbed the plastic bucket and plunked it down on top of the coffee table “Like we agreed guys, everyone ante up,”

Darci reached into her bag and pulled out the package of sparklers, briefly rereading the label before setting them in the bucket. Around her everyone else produced some kind of firework and put it in the offered bin.

Those were the terms they’d agreed on, everyone chipped in some of their leftover fireworks from last night, and the winner got the pot.

Now that the stakes were set, Toby started dealing out to each of them from the pile of white cards “Just to make sure everyone remembers, no throwing in the towel, we go until we drop. The winner’s the last one standing or the one with the most black cards by five o'clock, whichever comes first,” he flashed them a feral grin “Let the games begin,”

Claire returned his predatory look “You’d better bring your A-game TP, because I’m going home with those bottle rockets,” 

The two of them stared each other down, Darci glanced over to Jim and Mary. The three of them rolled their eyes simultaneously.

It wasn’t like it really mattered who won, whoever it was would just end up shooting them all off at the end of the year bonfire with everyone else.

Jim apparently decided he’d had enough of Toby and Claire’s standoff and gently nudged his friend in the shoulder to grab his attention “Ok you dealt so I’ll draw the first black one,”

All eyes were on him as he picked up a black card from the top of the deck, flipped it over, and started reading it out loud “Arby’s, we have….”

The sound of shuffling filled the room as they all started rifling through their cards. Darci scanned through her hand before one in particular grabbed her attention. This one, this one was perfect. She couldn’t control the grin that spread across her face as she set her white card down with the others.

Her card did in fact win the Darci first round, and she won many rounds after that. Though not all of them. Steadily growing piles of black cards grew besides each of them; a visual reminder of each victory. Some rounds were over quickly with a winner being declared in seconds, others took a while, the judge having to choose between multiple very good choices or all bad choices. Some rounds were extended simply because they were all laughing too hard to function. 

Their game passed in a blur of giggles, laughs, tears, and groans. So by the time Darci got around to checking her phone, she saw that it was already almost 2pm.

Toby lifted a card from the top of the black deck “Ok, the class field trip was completely ruined by... uh Darci, why are you raising your hand?”

“Hey, uh, not that I’m not having a blast,” she slowly lowered her hand “But all those mocktails are catching up to me,”

His eyes widened by just a fraction “Ah,” 

They all looked around at the empty glasses and plates surrounding them. Jim was the first to set his cards facedown on the floor “How about we take a quick five minute break?”

“Ok,”

“Sounds good,”

“Fine by me,”

They all set down their cards and started getting to their feet

Darci glanced down the hall “Hey Jim, where’s the bathroom?” 

“Down the hall past the kitchen, first door on the right, the other door’s just the basement,”

“Thanks,”

Mary started gathering empty glasses “I’ll go ahead and make more mocktails,” 

Claire raised her arms above her head and stretched, no doubt working out the kinks in her back from staying seated so long “I think I’ll use the facilities too,”

“Make that three,” Jim added.

Uh oh, sounded like a line was forming. 

Wasting no more time, Darci scurried off to the bathroom as discreetly as she could. She had to go  _ bad _ and did not want to get stuck behind Claire and Jim. A few minutes later she walked out feeling very relieved, but was surprised to see no one waiting by the door. 

Where were Jim and Claire? They’d said they had to go to, so why weren’t-- ah, the upstairs bathroom. That must be it.

Looking over to her right revealed that Toby, busy stacking haphazard piles of cards, was the only one in the living room. Sounds of pouring liquids and clinking glasses came from the kitchen, which meant Mary was still in there making drinks. It looked like Toby had the cards under control, so Darci opted to go into the kitchen to see if Mary needed help.

She poked her head through the entryway “You want an assist with those mocktails?”

Mary glanced over to her while still pouring two cans into the large pitcher “I’m just about done, but if you could put the empties in recycle that would be great,”

“Will do,”

Dacri started collecting empty cans and bottles from off the counters. But it was only when her arms were full that she realized she couldn’t see a recycling bin anywhere.

“You know where the bin is?”

“Just put them in the paper bag hanging off the back door,” Mary replied without looking up from stirring the pitcher “They have some other kind of plan,”

Walking over to the back door, Darci found the bag Mary was talking about with no issue, except for one slight problem. She stared at the narrow opening of the paper bag and then back down at the brimming pile of cans in her arms. 

This was going to be a challenge.

Unwilling to admit defeat by setting the cans down on the counter and putting them in one at a time, Darci leaned over and held the pile of cans over the bag. Slowly, she loosened her arms and adjusted her grip so that only a few cans fell into the bag at a time.

She was down to five cans and already congratulating herself for pulling this off when the cans shifted unexpectedly, causing four to fall in the bag while one slipped free and started rolling away. Swearing under her breath, Darci chased after the runaway. The can had a headstart on her and rolled straight towards the cracked basement door. 

Don’t go through the door, don’t go through the door, don’t go through the door.

The can slipped perfectly through the crack and she could hear it start bouncing down the steps.

Well darn.

Darci hesitated at the basement door for a second. Jim hadn’t specifically said that the basement was off limits, but it always felt weird going into new spaces at other people’s houses, especially without explicit permission. It always felt like she was sneaking around.

Berating herself, Daric opened the door and headed down the creaky wooden steps towards where the can had landed at the bottom. Why was she making such a big deal about this, it wasn’t like she was looking at anything private, it was just the basement, not someone’s bedroom or home office. Besides, leaving garbage just laying around someone else’s house was a lot worse than accidentally snooping.

Having reached the bottom of the steps, Darci bent over and wrapped her fingers around the wayward can; but before she could even stand back up, the already dim basement suddenly became much darker.

She let out a squeak and whirled her head in the direction of the door above her. It was shut, but only partially, the narrow line of light was proof of that. Probably just swung shut by itself because of the way the house settled. Darci let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. What was with her today? She really needed to quit being so jumpy.

Adrenaline fading, Darci turned and walked back up the steps towards the door. But three steps from the top she paused, squinting to try and peer through the gloom.

It looked like there was some kind of weird...pattern on the door. Or was there? It was mostly clustered in one area and didn’t look like any kind of decorative pattern she’d seen before. From this distance in the dark she couldn’t really tell. 

But there was  _ something _ on the door, that much she was sure of.

Curious now, Darci came to the topmost step and leaned in close, cracking the door wider to let in more light. 

What she’d first thought was an engraved pattern on the door was actually scratches. Dozens upon dozens of overlaying scratches clustered just below the middle of the door. Darci’s eyes flitted across the numerous grooves. These marks didn’t look like a one off thing either. They were so deeply layered on top of each other, something must have scratched this door over and over again for a long time. In fact they looked almost like--

Her heart stopped.

Darci raised a hand up, desperately hoping to be proven wrong as she lined her fingers up with a group of the scratches. To her horror they aligned perfectly. 

She realized her fingers were trembling.

“Mary!” she hissed, not wanting to shout but needing someone else to see this “Mary come check this out!”

“What is it?”

“Just get over here!”

Mary’s footsteps came towards the basement as Darci pushed the door open and stepped out into the hall, putting the scratches on full display. 

Mary came around the corner, frowning, no doubt unhappy about being called over so hastily. Not even bothering to try and pacify her, Darci worlessly pointed towards the scratches. It took Mary a few seconds to notice what Darci was pointing at, but the instant she did her jaw dropped and her eyes got huge “What the hell is all that?”

Darci lined up her fingers to the scratches to demonstrate “I think these are claw marks,” she whispered “Someone was locked in the basement,”

“Holy shit….” Mary said with hushed incredulity, pulling out her phone and snapping a few pics of the scored wood.

Darci moved from examining the door itself to the knob. She was stunned to see it didn’t have a lock in it, meaning that it should have been impossible for anyone to be locked down there. And the knob matched all the others in the house so it wasn’t likely that a lockable knob had been replaced with a lockless knob. 

So why had someone been clawing at a door that shouldn’t have been stopping them in the first place?

Her brain chased itself in circles, trying to come up with a solution to the paradox in front of her. Winding Darci into a tighter and tighter spring of anxiety and confusion, and ultimately getting nowhere.

Maybe a different perspective was what she needed to solve this puzzle.

Stepping fully back up into the hall, Darci shut the door all the way. Glancing at the walls surrounding the door for anything odd. It took her a little while but eventually she noticed something. 

Something that would have otherwise appeared more or less normal, if not for what was on the basement door. 

An exercise band was hanging on a hook attached to the wall just over a foot away from the door, the hook was exactly level with the doorknob. 

Not even realizing what she was doing, Darci lifted the free end of the band, reached over, and looped it over the knob. It fit, but just barely, tension in the band keeping the door firmly shut. Lock or no lock  _ that  _ would keep someone in the basement.

Mary was almost manically snapping more pictures now, shaking hands barely able to hold her phone up “Holy shit holy shit holy shit!” she hissed.

Darci forced herself to reach out and slip the band off the door, needing to see the scratches again, even though their image was already burned into her retinas. To force her brain to accept the fact that what Darci was looking at was real. 

Looking at the layers of claw marks again something else clicked.

Something that made Darci start to feel physically ill.

How low they were on the door. How tightly clustered the marks were.

Whoever had been locked in the basement had been  _ tiny _ .

“Oh my god,” Mary whispered “It was Jim...”

It took Darci a few seconds to actually process what Mary had said “What are you talking about?”

“The weird curfew, the way he freaked out when he was late, what do you think!”

Darci immediately wanted to say something denying that, but all she could do was stand there with her jaw hanging open.

This house looked fairly new, twenty, thirty years old tops. And Jim said he’d lived here since he was born, that still left a ten year gap when someone else lived here and could have left the marks….

No. The marks didn’t look brand new, but they didn’t look thirty years old either. If she had to guess Darci would say they were made about ten years ago. Right about the time Jim would have been in elementary school. 

And the hook with the band, those were definitely a recent thing.

A wave of cold dizziness washed over her. Her head was light and her knees went weak. Darci still couldn’t believe this was real, she didn’t  _ want  _ to believe this was real. She was barely aware of Mary looking frantically back and forth between her phone and the door. These things were only supposed to happen to far off strangers on the news and in magazines. Not here right in front of her face, not to someone she went to school with every day.

How had they not noticed-- how had  _ she _ not noticed? All the weird rules, the crazy hours, why had it taken this long to put it together? And according to Toby this had been going for years,  _ years _ for crying out loud! How could Jim have lived through years of...this...

Darci was so out of it she barely noticed the sound of footsteps from behind the bathroom door.

Heavy  _ adult _ footsteps.

Adrenaline surged, snapping Darci out of her state of shock. Lightning fast, she shoved the basement door shut with her left hand and grabbed Mary’s arm with the right. Ignoring her friend’s squawk of protest and yanking her away from the basement. Just before the bathroom door swung open and out came--

“Hi girls, you having fun with your card game?”

“Oh yeah for sure,” Mary said chipperly.

Darci was beyond grateful that Mary could still act casual after what they’d seen. It was all she could do to force a smile on her face and nod, desperately hoping she didn’t look as nervous as she felt.

“Well don’t mind me, I just came down here because there was a line upstairs,” Dr. Lake flashed them a smile before turning and heading towards the staircase “Now it’s back to bed for me,”

Without warning Mary shoved two mocktail glasses into Darci’s hands, picking up the other three herself “We’ll just grab our drinks and get back to our game,”

Dr. Lake spared them a quick nod as she went up the stairs “Sounds good, and help yourselves to anything you need,”

“Will do,” Mary replied, herding Darci towards the living room.

It was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other. 

Standing in front of them in pajamas and slippers, Jim’s mom seemed so nice, so  _ normal _ , how could she be the type of person who would…

Darci took one final glance at the door as they walked by, catching a brief glimpse of the scratches, confirming that she hadn’t just hallucinated it.

“Don’t worry, I still have the pictures,” Mary whispered, barely audible, into her ear.

Oh. That’s right. Darci was so busy being shell shocked she’d forgotten all about that.

Stepping back into the living room she saw that everyone else was already there and waiting.

“Hey guys,” Toby piped up “You ready to get started”

“Totally,” Mary said while passing out mocktails, if Darci didn’t know better she would have believed the enthusiasm in Mary’s voice was genuine.

“Darci?”

All eyes were on her, expectantly waiting for a reply.

“Yeah...you’d better believe it...”

The rest of the afternoon passed in a haze. Mindlessly putting down cards when she was called to, not even bothering to read what was on them. 

Mainly she was focused on trying not to stare at Jim. To turn to him and ask why. Why hadn’t Jim said anything, why hadn’t he asked any of them for help? They’d sat next to each other every day at lunch for six months and he’d never let on that any of this was happening. Did he think no one would believe him, or was he scared of what his mom would do if he told? She would have thought that they trusted each other enough by now, so why...

The coppery tang of blood filled her mouth as her teeth cut into her tongue with the force Darci was biting it. If she started now there would be no stopping the flood. Right now Darci just had to get through this afternoon and talk about what she’d seen with Mary later. That meant she needed to stay calm, keep her head on. Not giving in to the urge to scream ‘What the hell?!’ at Jim every time she saw him out of the corner of her eye. And it didn’t help that she had to fight the urge to jump every time she heard Dr. Lake moving upstairs. Not. At. All.

Their game seemed to drag on so long that Darci thought it would never end, but eventually it did, not soon enough and far too early at the same time. She joined the other’s in cleaning up, moving like she was in a fog. Robotically picking up stray cards and putting away dirty dishes. And soon, far too soon, Jim was shutting the door behind them. 

What would happen to him now that the door was shut and they were gone?

Toby jogged over to his own house, gazing forlornly at the plastic pail in Claire’s arms as he waved goodbye. Dacri jerkily raised her hand and moved it from side to side in an effort to mirror the gesture. Something that Mary pulled off much better and Claire didn’t even have to fake.

Lucky her.

Claire was the last one to turn away, still beaming and waving at Toby even as they rounded the turn and he vanished from sight..

“I don’t know about you guys, but we  _ need _ to do that again, before next year,” she paused, no doubt waiting for them to chime in in agreement, but Darci couldn’t speak past the massive knot in her throat. And Mary looked grim and gaunt, no longer maintaining the mask she’d had for the last few hours.

When her friends didn’t reply Claire turned and faced them “Is everything ok? You’ve been pretty quiet all afternoon Darc,”

Mary stopped in her tracks, laying a hand on Claire’s shoulder to halt her as well. Darci stopped right along with them. She glanced towards Darci, the two of them sharing a knowing look. 

Claire’s gaze flickered back and forth between them. Mouth crumpling into a frown when she recognized that they were in on a secret she didn’t share “Guys, what’s going on?”

“Claire…” Mary spoke up softly, she looked over at Darci for approval. Darci nodded back at her. Claire deserved to know the truth, but if Darci tried to explain she would just end up crying.

Looking grim, Mary pulled her phone out “Claire, you need to see this…”


	10. Mary

The concrete bench of the table Mary was sitting at was profoundly uncomfortable. It had never been the most luxurious place to have lunch, but today the molded concrete seemed extra hard and gritty. And based off the looks on Claire and Darci’s faces, they felt the exact same way. 

But the seating arrangements were the least of their worries right now. Mary kept her gaze fixed squarely on the side door of the school building in the distance. Waiting for Jim and Toby to come outside and approach.

The three of them had spent weeks planning to time this perfectly down to the last second. Beginning of lunch period, and their next class was literally two minutes away. Outdoor table on the far side of the school property; no crowds, limited traffic. Wednesday on their first week back, well enough into the week that all new projects and assignments had been given out, but not soon enough for anything to be due. 

Plenty of time to sit and talk, no rushing to finish or get to their next class. And their table was far enough out of the way that no one would be near enough to overhear or interrupt. 

They’d briefly tossed around the idea of trying to talk to Jim at one of their houses, but in the end decided against it. It might make Jim feel cornered and that was the last thing they wanted.

With all the thought they’d put into this there was no way it wouldn’t go perfectly.

But that didn’t stop Mary from being so anxious she wanted to puke. 

She had never done anything like this before. Hell, she’d never thought she’d have to. But here she was.

Her breath hitched when Mary saw Jim and Toby step out of the door and start to walk up to their table from the far side of the field. A wave of nausea washed over her, although she did her best not to show it.

Mary swallowed hard and forced her stomach to settle. Keep it together, this wasn't about her. It was about Jim, she owed it to him to do this. And besides, she wasn't alone. 

In her peripheral vision Mary could see Claire sitting straight up hands folded in her lap, taut as a wire; Darci gripping the concrete bench beneath her with fingers like claws.

Without raising her arms more than an inch, Mary reached out and covered each of her friends’ hands with one of her own.

They were going to get through this; all of them. By the end of today the hardest part would be over and Jim would be safe. They just had to rip the band aid off and get things going.

Jim and Toby took their seats at the table, smiling and relaxed like it was just another regular day of lunch. 

If only.

“Hey guys, how’s it going?” Toby said cheerfully.

None of them said anything, his sunny attitude seemed painfully out of place. 

Toby instantly picked up on the mood “Is something wrong, why the long faces?”

In her peripheral vision Mary could see Dacri and Claire stiffen on either side of her. 

This was it. Time to find out once and for all whether or not Jim’s mom was doing what they thought she was.

She pulled in a deep breath through her nose. From the beginning Mary knew she was going to have to be the one to take point on this. Claire still had her huge crush on Jim, not that there was anything wrong with that, but it might hold her back from pushing too hard if Jim needed an extra shove. And quite frankly Darci was just too nice. The possibility of bringing Toby in on their plan had come up, but had gotten shot down almost immediately. There hadn’t been a good way to meet up with him alone over break, and trying to tell him over the phone was  _ way _ too dicey.

Bottom line, they could  _ not _ risk Dr. Lake getting tipped off.

Which meant it all fell down to Mary to take charge. Was she looking forward to it? Hell no. But there was a chance Jim could be in serious trouble. And there was no fucking way Mary was going to let that go on. 

Not if she could do something about it.

“Actually…” Mary spoke up slowly and deliberately “There’s something we need to talk about,” 

The second the words left her mouth Toby froze and Jim went rigid, after a few beats of awkward silence he gave her a painful looking smile.

“Is this about my curfew again? I’ve told you guys I just--”

“We know your mom locks you in the basement,” 

And there it was, out in the open.

Even though Mary had seen the scratches on the door with her own two eyes. Looked at the pictures of them on her phone over a thousand times, to the point where she thought she was going insane; there had been a part of her that doubted. That whispered there was probably a perfectly reasonable explanation for everything that she was just too dumb to think of. And accusing his mom of the worst would be crossing an unforgivable line; pissing Jim off beyond belief and completely humiliating herself, along with Darci and Claire, in the process. 

But one look at his face and every doubt she had vanished.

The way his eyes widened and his mouth dropped open, the juice box slipping from his hand and landing on his tray with a clunk. How she could practically see the his face get paler by the second. 

It was true. Every bit of it. Jim’s mom was locking him up and he’d been keeping it secret from everyone this whole time.

“How-- how did--”

“We saw the scratches on the basement door when we were over on new years,” Mary said, softer now “Don’t worry, we believe you,”

“Oh my god,” Claire whispered “The night after the movies...I’m so sorry Jim, I never would have suggested we stay late if I knew your mom would...”

Toby stared back and forth between Jim and Claire, looking completely lost “I don’t...what are you guys-- what are you guys talking about?”

Mary ignored him. Toby could be brought up to speed later. Now that they knew for sure what Jim’s mom was doing, they needed to take the next step “Ok Jim, you need to talk to the police, like yesterday,”

He blinked at her “What?”

“It will be ok, after school we’ll all go with you to the police station. And even if the cops don’t believe you I have pictures of the scratch marks on the door on my phone. That should be enough to convince them,”

Instead of reassuring him, Jim looked horrified by this idea “No! We can’t do that!”

Darci got up and walked around the table to take a seat a Jim’s side “Jim, you’re scared, I get it, but we have your back, you don’t have to be afraid of your mom anymore,”

“That’s not-- that isn’t--” Jim laid his head in his hands and let out a deep, shuddering breath “It’s not what you guys think...”

“Jim, what-- what are you saying?” Toby’s voice shook with steadily rising panic “What’s going on?”

Jim whipped his head over towards Toby, expression agonized “Tobes-- I, I...”

Claire raised both hands up “Ok let’s just all just take a deep breath calm down,” she looked over towards Jim “Darci’s right, we’re in this together, and we’re not going to let your mom hurt you. But you  _ have  _ to tell people what’s happening,”

Rather than reassure him their words seemed to have the opposite effect. Jim was hunched over with his arms wrapped around himself, shaking more and more with every breath he took.

A frown started tugging on Mary’s lips as uncertainty crept in. Even if they went with Jim to the police station, would he even be able to bring himself to tell the truth? If she had scared him so bad that he was too afraid to talk about it even when it was just the five of them….

No. She wasn’t going to let that happen.

Steeling herself, Mary reached into her pocket to pull out her phone. If Jim wasn’t strong enough to do this by himself right now then Mary would do it for him.

How could she call herself his friend if she didn’t.

“Ok new plan.  _ You  _ don’t worry about anything, I’ll call the police tell them everything,” she looked up and gave him her most confident smile, the one that said ‘Don't worry I’ve got this’ “And if push comes to shove I’ll convince my moms to let you sleep on our couch,”

Mary had just pulled up the website for the Arcadia Oaks police department when her phone was nearly ripped from her hands.

She jerked backwards on reflex and was stunned to see Jim hanging halfway over the table “Jim! What the hell!?”

“You can’t call the cops on my mom!”

“Um, I have vocal chords and a working phone, I’m pretty sure I can,”

“You’re going to get her in trouble!”

Daric put a hand on his shoulder, expression wavering between sympathy and confusion “Jim, if your mom locks you in the basement then she should be in trouble,”

“It’s-- It’s not like that!”

“Then what is it like?” Toby’s voice was steadier now but his smile was brittle “Just-- tell us what really happened, I’m sure this is just a big misunderstanding,”

Jim whipped around, looking at all of them in turn, jaw working up and down with words he couldn’t manage to say.

This was starting to go off the rails, time for Mary to get things back on track, she laid her phone face down on the table, so Jim knew he had her full attention “I don’t know what your mom said she’d do if you told anyone, but whatever it is we won’t let it happen, you don’t have to pretend anymore,”

Before Jim could even open his mouth to get a word out, Darci spoke up “Mare’s right, no matter what your mom said she’d do if you told, we can protect you,”

He just stared at her like she just told him the world was ending. 

Jim grabbed the edge of the table, painful looking with the strength he was gripping the concrete with, his breath came in increasingly large, quivering, gusts. It looked like he was an inch away from either crying or screaming “Guys-- stop it, please,”

Toby reached out and rubbed Jim’s unoccupied shoulder comfortingly, a pained look on his face. Mary shared an uncertain glance with Darci and Claire. They knew things might get tense but this was bad. They  _ needed  _ to convince him that they wouldn’t let his mom retaliate. The police would stop her, if push came to shove  _ they _ would stop her.

But if they wanted to stop her for good Jim had to  _ talk. _

Trying one more time, Claire sat up straighter and leaned forward “I know this is hard Jim. But your mom doing this to you...that isn’t right. You need to talk to the cops, or a teacher, or  _ someone _ so they can help you,”

“I don’t-- it’s not--” Jim flicked his gaze from side to side before lowering his head and speaking in a hoarse whisper “Mom hasn’t locked me down there since I was seven, ok?”

You could have heard a pin drop as all of them stared at him in horrified silence.

“She...she what?” Toby whispered. 

Jim’s eyes widened and he clapped a hand over his mouth, as if just now realizing what he said.

Mary knew her jaw was hanging open but she couldn’t figure out how to shut it. Her brain had short circuited and now none of her body parts would work right.

They’d known from the scratches that Jim had been locked in the basement when he was younger, but to know that he’d been  _ that  _ little….

Two wires clicked in her brain.

A chill flickered to life in her chest, slowly starting to creep across the rest of her body as the horrifying thought took root.

If Jim had been that young when his mom had  _ stopped _ locking him in the basement…. 

That he must have been even younger when she started.

The edges of her vision got blurry as her head started to swim. How old had he been? Five...four…. _ three? _ Mary’s stomach curdled as she imagined Jim as a little little kid locked down in that cold, dark basement. 

Meanwhile Jim was trying to stammer out an explanation “N-- no I, I didn’t mean-- you guys have to understand, I was a messed up kid, Mom only put me down there because she had to!”

Mary ignored his babbling and pulled her phone back up with shaking hands “I’m calling the police now,” she barely managed to keep her voice firm “I don’t care what kind of a kid you were. If your mom has been locking you in the basement for that long then she should be in jail. Plain and simple,”

Jim looked at her like she’d slapped him “Look, I can’t tell you why, but she doesn’t deserve to go to jail,  _ please you have to believe me! _ ”

Mary glanced over at him; wincing at his terrified, pleading expression. This was hard, and she felt for him, she really did, But the only way out was forward, and no matter how tough this was going to be for him they needed to push through.

One day Jim would thank her.

“I know you’re scared Jim, but I promise once we tell the right people this is all going to get better,” she softened her voice “Your mom isn’t going to lock you up ever again,”

She had already dialed half of the non-emergency number for the Arcadia Oaks PD when she heard Jim speak up.

“No...what...what I said was wrong,” 

Mary paused in her typing and glanced up from the screen, everyone but Jim wore matching looks of surprise “Wait, you mean your mom didn’t stop locking you in the basement when you were seven?”

Jim’s features wavered before hardening into a cold mask “No, I mean my mom didn’t lock me in the basement at all,”

All Mary could do was blink.

What?

“Jim,” Darci turned towards him, eyebrows furrowed in confusion “You literally just said that she did,”

“No.” his voice grew steely “I didn’t,”

He shook off their hands and grabbed his tray, standing up from the table “My mom never locked me in the basement and that’s what I’ll say to the cops or anyone else who asks, now I need to go and get started my spanish paper,”

Seeing Jim turn to walk away, from them, from everything they were trying to do to help him, red hot fire exploded in Mary’s chest “No you don’t,” she growled with a force that surprised her, pushing herself out of her seat “The paper isn’t due until next Friday and I  _ know  _ you planned on working on it during free period on Thursday and Tuesday. So.  _ Don’t. Lie. To. Me _ .”

All of them recoiled from the venom in her voice as she practically spat the words out, even Jim staggered before quickly composing himself “Look, it doesn’t matter, my mom never locked me in the basement and that’s that, and whatever scratches you  _ think _ you saw, those were probably just made by racoons,”

Thinking quick, Mary grabbed her phone and waved it in front of him “Well I’m pretty sure the recording I just made would disagree,”

It was a complete and total bluff. She hadn’t actually recorded anything, but Jim didn’t need to know that.

Jim’s face went from stony to stricken as he lunged forward, making a grab at her phone. Mary danced out of reach and clutched it tighter to her chest.

“G-- g-- give me that,” 

Claire got to her feet and stood by Mary’s side, stand off forming “Jim, your mom locked you up, we all know it so why are you trying to protect her? You don’t have to be afraid of her anymore, we can keep you safe,”

Jim looked longingly at the phone nestled snugly in Mary’s hands “You guys don’t get it, I’m not afraid of my mom, I can’t let you get her into trouble,”

Darci came up beside him “Ok, when an adult locks a little kid in a basement that’s wrong, you  _ know  _ that right?”

“I-- I-- I was a screwed up kid, she had no choice,”

“No you weren’t Jim,” Toby said, slowly getting to his feet to flank him “You really weren’t,”

“And it really doesn’t matter what kind of kid you were,” Darci said with increased exasperation “You know what your mom’s doing is wrong, so _why _are you trying to defend her?”

Jim slammed his tray on the ground “ _ You don’t understand! _ ”

“_Then tell us!_” Mary shrieked so loud that Señor Ulh, all the way over on the front walkway, turned and stared “_Make us understand!_ _Just stop lying and let us help you!”_

Mary knew she shouldn’t be screaming; they’d come here to help Jim, not harass him, but she couldn’t help it. Dr. Lake shoved him in the basement and put a lock on the door. And he was  _ lying  _ about it to protect  _ her _ . The person who was  _ hurting  _ him.

Taking advantage of the lull of silence, Claire darted around the table towards Jim “Listen, no matter what your mom said or did we’re your friends and we’ll  _ always _ have your back, but we can’t help you if you don’t tell the truth,”

Jim frantically looked around, cagey and desperate, without even meaning to they’d surrounded him on all sides. 

“ _ Please… _ ” Claire reached out and put a hand on Jim’s shoulder “Just let us help you,”

Now they all looked at him expectantly. Jim shriveled under their gazes, curling in on himself and gripping his upper arms with what must have been bruising force.

Mary stayed where she was, head held high and feet firmly planted on the ground, eyes locked on Jim. Bracing herself for the coming storm of tears, accusations, or whatever else Jim was going to explode with.

Suddenly he bolted, turning and sprinting away from them back towards the school. The four of them were stunned into silence for a split second before Toby and Claire started after him, Mary and Darci rooted in place with shock.

“Jim stop-- wait! Come back!”

“Please Jim, we’re only trying to help!”

If Jim heard them he ignored them, not slowing down as he ran up to the door and ripped it open with surprising force.

Even from this far away Mary could see crystal clear as the door slammed shut right in Toby’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Teenagers, they have enough social knowledge to be aware of abusive homes and circumstances. But not nearly enough worldly experience to appropriately handle it when they think that someone they know is in that type of situation.
> 
> Not to mention the truth of Jim's situation is nothing like they're imagining, which just adds gasoline to the fire.
> 
> In this story Jim has two main fears, having his blue (troll) form revealed and something bad happening to his mom (and not necessarily in that order). The possibility of both of those things happening was just thrown in his face at once, which is why he reacted as badly as he did. Now that being said, Jim has now proven to his friends that he will outright lie about events he knows to be true, seemingly in order to protect his mom. That is REALLY going to come back and bite him later.
> 
> And Mary might have seemed a little hot under the collar, but she wasn't angry at Jim. She was confused and frustrated by the way he reacted; and angry at herself for not noticing something was off with him sooner. 
> 
> Next time, the chapter where Toby Domzalski gets put through the emotional wringer.


End file.
